


Pretty Lies

by actlikesummer



Series: The Kara Stark Chronicles [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supergirl (TV 2015), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Hurt Kara Danvers, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Protective Kara Danvers, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:35:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 32,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27387298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actlikesummer/pseuds/actlikesummer
Summary: In trying to save the world from future alien invasions, Tony and Bruce accidentally create one of their worst enemies yet.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Kara Danvers & Tony Stark, Kara Danvers/Steve Rogers, Pietro Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff
Series: The Kara Stark Chronicles [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557508
Comments: 21
Kudos: 47





	1. The Attack

“So that’s why she’s been acting so weird?”

Kara chuckled as she sat across from Steve at their favorite outdoor brunch spot. “Yes, honey. You’re her father. Not many girls go to their fathers for help with their period unless they have to. Not to mention she lives in a tower often, and primarily, filled with men.”

“Good point.” He conceded.

Kara shrugged. “She’s twelve. It’s what happens.”

“Not to you, though.” He reminded her.

“Yeah, but I’m full Kryptonian. She’s only half. This is all a learning curve for us, which I know doesn’t ease your fatherly panic at all, but still.”

He shook his head. “I just wish we knew more of what to expect. I don’t like thinking I’m not protecting her as much as I need to be.”

Grabbing his hand, she leaned forward and kissed him. “That’s what makes you such a wonderful father to her.”

Nodding, he groaned. “I guess. I just feel so useless.”

Kara had to bite her lip to hold her smile and laugh back. “Yes, honey, you’re totally useless even though you’re a superhero for Rao’s sake.”

“Doll, if you don’t stop teasing me…”

“What?” She laughed. “What are you going to do?”

He grinned, sitting back in his chair, looking more at ease. “I’ll get Clint hyped on caffeine and send him after you in the vents again.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, I _would_ dare.” He told her seriously.

“He nearly destroyed SI’s whole cybersecurity program last time!” She told him.

He shrugged. “You shouldn’t have been holding that glass of wine near your computer.”

“You fight dirty, Rogers.” She smirked. “Is that a ‘40s thing?”

“Maybe.” He smiled. “Bucky and I spent most of our time on the streets. He taught me a lot.” He looked across the street. “There used to be an alleyway there. I think I got beat up there once.”

“Oh, honey…” She chuckled before sighing. “Have you guys had any luck finding him?”

Steve shook his head. “There have been a few leads that Sam picked up on, but nothing panned out.”

“I’m sorry.” She told him honestly.

“It’s okay.” He copied her sigh and leaned forward to be closer to her. “He’s been trained by both the Army and HYDRA. He knows how to hide.”

“Hey,” she grabbed his hand again. “we’re going to find him and bring him home. Just like with you.”

“I just don’t know anymore.” He looked around. “I wish I could say I knew for sure we would, but I just…”

“Do you trust me?” When he didn’t answer or look at her, she put her hand on his cheek and turned it, so he had to look at her. “I said, do you trust me.”

“You know, I do.” He said seriously. “More than anyone in the world.”

“Then trust me when I say we will figure it out. I’ll fly over the whole planet as many times as needed if I have to.”

Playing with her fingers, he kissed her hand. “I love you; you know that?”

“Yeah, but it’s always nice to hear.” She smiled. “I love you, too, by the way.”

“Well, good, because the couple at the table behind you seem to be very interested in our love, so it would be awkward if you didn’t.” He teased.

Confused, Kara turned to see what he meant, and a pool of icy dread settled in her gut. On the table, her hand tightened in Steve’s as her body unconsciously tensed. Setting a stony look of disgust on her face, she shook her head.

“Terry, fancy seeing you in New York.” By the tone of her voice, Steve knew she was barely containing her anger.

“I would say the same to you, but I saw your new living quarters on the news.” He responded, his voice equally filled with snark.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but…who are you?”

Not bothering to look at her fiancé, she answered the question for him. “Babe, this is Terry Lee, and the woman I assume is his wife now.”

“Wait, Terry Lee? As in…”

“Layna’s father, yeah.” The man nodded. “How is my daughter doing these days?”

“Well, I can happily say that she’s doing very well, considering she is no longer your daughter.” Kara smiled and felt Steve squeeze her hand in return.

“Excuse me?” It was the first time his wife spoke. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you maybe he told you. Your husband signed away all of his rights not long after he left me, unannounced, with a one-year-old.” She informed the woman. “That was eleven years ago. When she was nine, she was adopted by a man who chose to be a good father to her.”

“Are you kidding me?” Terry shouted, causing nearby tables to glance at them. “You just let some random person adopt our child?”

“First of all, Layna isn’t your child anymore. She hasn’t been since you walked out on her.” Steve snapped back at him. “Also, the entire world knows who I am, so I don’t think I can be considered ‘some random guy.’”

Kara yanked her hand out of Steve’s and stood, causing Terry to stand as well. “What, are you going to start a fight now and make it look like our faults? Just because you’re superheroes doesn’t mean that--”

“Shut up for once in your life, will you?” She shot at him, a focused look on her face.

Seeing the expression she held, Steve stood as well. “What is it?”

She blinked. “I can hear…chatter. Almost normal…but trying too hard to seem that way.”

She looked around slowly and saw a waiter coming by with a tray of food for her ex and his new wife. “Excuse me, I know this is an odd request, but could you leave the tray with us?”

“Miss?”

“If you could leave the tray with us and get anybody innocent out of this restaurant right now, that would be wonderful; thank you.” She told him calmly, a smile on her face that only Steve could tell was fake.

Though he looked confused, the man nodded and walked away, leaving his large silver platter with Kara. The woman in question turned slightly and handed it to her fiancé.

“Trouble?” He took the platter in complete trust, knowing he had left his shield at the tower.

“It’s a setup.” She told him. “Most of the tables here have guns underneath.”

“What?” Behind her, Terry’s wife paled. “Guns?”

“You may want to leave.” She told them as someone a few tables away stood to go to the bathroom. “Right now.”

Turning to face Steve, she locked eyes with him. “Duck.”

Based on instinct and trust, he dove to the ground as gunshots were heard amongst the blast of heat vision. Standing again, he held the platter in front of him, and the fighting began.

Thanks to Kara’s warning, they were able to get the upper-hand pretty easily until glasses started breaking around them. Ducking on instinct again, he looked to Kara. “Sniper!”

“I got him.”

She shot into the sky, sending a blast of heat at a rooftop near them. Turning from her fight, Steve flipped the table next to him as he threw his platter against the side of the one agent’s head. It seemed like forever before the fighting stopped, the bullets stilled, and everything was quiet except for the screams on the street and the cars honking in annoyance.

He sighed as Kara landed heavily next to him. “You get the sniper?”

“Yeah.” She was quiet for a second. “But he got me first.”

Whipping around, he stared at her as she held her stomach. Then he saw the blood start to seep around it on her shirt. “How?”

“Kryptonite bullet.”

He moved to grab her as she crumpled to the ground, lowering her, so she was lying on her back. Holding his hands over her wound, he tried not to panic.

“I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry.” He told her as she hissed at the pressure he put on her stomach. “Hey, it’s okay. Look at me; you’re going to be fine. We’ll get you back to the tower, and Bruce will get it out of you.”

Her eyes were locked on his when they suddenly widened, and he was hit in the side of the head with something heavy, sending him to the floor. His eyes were blurry as he looked up at the woman grinning above him.

“Don’t worry, Captain. We’ll take good care of Miss Stark. I promise.”

Though he fought the darkness, his eyes fluttered shut, and the last thing he heard was Kara’s cry of pain as she was dragged out.


	2. Bring Her Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His gaze locked onto Tony. “They got her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just chose a random town in Canada. Don't shoot, people!

“JARVIS scan all traffic cameras in the area around the restaurant.”

Rushing into the building, he willed the elevator to go faster, though he knew it was speeding to their floor.

_“Dr. Banner started me on the task as soon as the rest of the team heard of the attack.”_

“Then search for any traces of Kryptonite or anything that might be an indication of alien experiments.” He told the AI.

_“Right away, Captain.”_

Looking down at his hands, not only did he notice they were trembling, but it was the first time he realized he had Kara’s blood on him. He hadn’t registered the fact that his hands and clothes were spattered with the horrifying liquid he’d tried to stop from coming out of her body.

He could wash his hands, he knew. His clothes, however, were going straight in the trash, never to be thought of again.

As the doors opened on their floor, he ran out and was greeted by Thor, Bruce, Tony, and Natasha. “Guys…”

“What the hell happened out there?” Nat asked quickly, taking in his disheveled appearance. “Is that blood?”

“I don’t know.” He told them honestly, ignoring the last part. “One minute, we were arguing with Kara’s ex, and the next, she’s handing me a platter to use as a shield because she sensed the attack before it hit.”

“Hold on, Kara’s ex attacked you?” Bruce asked in shock.

“No, they were also dining there,” Steve told them, running a hand through his hair.

“I’m sure that went over well,” Tony commented. “How is old Terry these days?”

Steve ignored his comment. “We barely started speaking when Kara heard them. It was SHIELD or HYDRA or whatever. They must be tracking us or watching our routines because they had people staged there as other diners.”

“Well, thank God for that Kryptonian hearing,” Tony muttered.

Thor looked at the soldier. “Does Kara need help with her fly-over of the city? I can assist her.”

“No, she…” Steve sighed. “They had a sniper, and she went to take care of it, and I didn’t think, goddammit, I didn’t even think about it!”

“Steve…what happened?” Bruce asked quietly.

“I was fighting on the ground, and we thought we had gotten everyone. Then Kara landed and said she’d stopped the sniper but…he was shooting Kryptonite bullets, and she was hit. Then, someone, we didn’t see hit me from the side and—” His gaze locked onto Tony. “They got her.”

“JARVIS?” Tony’s eyes didn’t leave the panicking soldier. “Get Clint, Rhodey, and Sam down here. Now.”

* * *

“Do we have any idea where they could have taken her?” Sam asked, looking around at the team.

He’d nearly locked in on a possible Bucky sighting when Tony’s desperate call had come in.

“Not yet,” Maria told him, having joined them to search for any known HYDRA bases on her tablet. “But I’m not stopping until she’s found.”

“We must be getting close to locating Loki’s scepter,” Thor said randomly, confusing everyone.

“Why do you say that?” Natasha asked him from the couch.

He turned to face them, his expression grim and angry. “They would not stage an attack such as this without due cause. They would not want to draw any more attention to themselves.”

“The big guy’s right.” Clint sighed. “I hate to admit it, but it’s what I would do if I knew the enemy was close, and I needed answers.”

_“I am sorry to interrupt, but I was able to track a van headed north out of the city. I tracked its location to the border but lost it once it entered Canada.”_

“Good man, J.” Tony clapped his hands together once. “Hill?”

She nodded. “There is a suspected base in Hamilton, Canada. They certainly would have had time to get there with the right tools at their disposal.”

“I didn’t want to be the one to bring this up, but has anyone else considered that this might be a trap?” Rhodey asked them.

“Are you kidding me?” Sam argued with him. “Weren’t you just saying that she’s practically your sister? Now you don’t want to go after her?”

“That’s not what I am saying at all.” Rhodey snapped back. “I love her more than most of you in this room, so of course, I want her back! I’m just saying we need to be careful because if we go in there half-cocked and looking for a fight, we run the risk of getting caught ourselves, and who will there be to rescue Kara then? We need to be smart about this.”

“Screw being smart and screw waiting until we have a plan.” Everyone turned to look at Steve, whose voice was deadly quiet, and tense. “Those bastards shot her with a Kryptonite bullet and let her bleed out while they dragged her body away. They targeted her, and I’m not leaving her behind.” He looked at everyone else. “So you can either come with me to get her, or you can stay here and get out of my way. But either way, I am going to that base, and I am bringing her home.”

The room was tense as he spoke, knowing the emotion that coursed through his body. Standing near him, Tony nodded. “Well, you know I’m in.”

Looking around at everyone else, Rhodey sent his friend a nod. “JARVIS, prep the jet. We’re going to Canada.”

* * *

Steve tightened the straps on his suit’s gloves as he felt a presence come up behind him. He was already standing on the landing pad, waiting for the rest of the team, but he knew this person had joined him earlier to try and talk to him.

“I know I’m being reckless.” He told the person. “I don’t care. She and Layna are the best things in my life, and I need her back. I don’t even want to think about what they could be…”

He trailed off and shook his head, feeling a hand on his shoulder. They were quiet for a moment before the voice spoke again.

“I wasn’t going to say that, man.” Sam’s voice was calm. “I just wanted to say that we’re going to get her back.”

Steve turned and looked at his friend, appreciatively. “Thanks, Sam.”

“Hey, dude. Kara’s family.” He smirked. “Besides, if we don’t get her back soon, she’ll bug the hell out of us forever for letting her sit there.”

“That cannot happen,” Tony said, joining them. “I already get enough shit from her; I don’t need that too.”

“We good to go?” Steve asked, anxious to leave.

“The rest of the team is on their way down.” The mechanic told him. “We’ll be wheels up in about three minutes.”

“Okay.” The soldier nodded. “Let’s go get our girl back.”


	3. To The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her blonde hair was matted with blood, and through the hole in her shirt, he saw the bandages covering her stomach where she’d been shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted a good moment between Kara and Clint. I think I delivered on that pretty well.

Landing quietly and cloaked in the woods just outside the base, Steve narrowed his eyes on his team.

Tony turned to him, nodding. “Call it, Cap.”

“Okay, I think our best bet is getting most of them in a central location, drawing them out of the base so we can have an easier chance of finding Kara.” He told them. “Sorry, Bruce, but we’re going to need a Code Green here.”

“I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t know that,” Bruce told his friend. “Besides, for Kara, it’s worth it.”

“I’m thinking Thor and Hulk will go right into the heart of the base and make a scene. Draw as much attention as you can and bring as many guards and soldiers out as you can.” Steve told them. “While they are doing that, the rest of us will head into the main building. On the way in, you could see heavy security around it, so I’m betting that’s where she’s being held.”

“We might have to split up on the inside.” Natasha shrugged. “If that happens, everyone should stay on comms.”

“You guys ready?” Tony asked, bringing his faceplate down.

“More than.” Steve agreed, clutching his shield tightly.

Turning to face Bruce, Thor led the way off of the Quinjet. “After you, my green friend.”

Taking a deep breath, Bruce closed his eyes, and within an instant, Hulk was hurdling through the trees with a roar. Thor started spinning Mjolnir rapidly until he had enough leverage to shoot into the sky, and a crack of lightning was heard among the shouts of the guards.

Looking at the men in metal, Clint readied his bow. “That’s our cue.”

The others hurried off the jet and ran (or flew, in Tony and Rhodey’s case) as fast as they could to the main building with a silent agreement.

* * *

The grounds were a mess as Thor and Hulk fought their way through the guards. The plan had worked, though, as the rest of their team was able to sneak into the main building. As they ran through the entrance, they came upon three different hallways, all leading in different directions.

“Nice call, Romanoff.” Wilson sighed. “Alright, who’s going where?”

Steve hesitated for only a moment before pointing at each hallway. “Nat and I will take the first hallway. Rhodey, you and Sam take the middle. Clint, go with Stark down the third. If anybody finds anything, let the others know.”

Once again agreeing silently, each partnership ran off in their assigned direction, hoping beyond all things that they’d find their friend alive and safe. Most of them had the feeling they wouldn’t get so lucky.

* * *

Following Tony down the dark hallway, Clint kept his eyes and ears open for any threat. Just as the thought crossed his mind, a shadow caught his eye, and he shot an arrow forward, hitting the man in the chest.

“I guess we’re on the right track.” Tony quipped, sending a blast just over Clint’s shoulder.

Shooting at their enemies in rapid succession, Clint chuckled wryly. “I wonder what gives you that idea!”

They fought for over a minute before Tony’s voice filled Clint’s comm, speaking quietly so only he could hear. “We’re not going to be able to hold them off and get to Kara. I can keep the fire on me while you run ahead.”

“You sure?” His voice was strained from the fight, but he didn’t stop his momentum.

“Just go! Get my sister and get back here. I’ll cover us on the way out.” Tony told him, turning to blast at the group, leaving Clint a way around them without being seen.

Taking his chance, the archer knocked one more guy down before sprinting off. He only slowed when he turned the corner and ran through a set of doors, his eyes going wide.

“Fuck.” He whispered to himself before speaking into his comm. “Guys, I found where they’ve been keeping her.”

He knew he wasn’t as versed in Kara’s Kryptonian history, but he knew this amount of Kryptonite was terrible. Every lightbulb was made of it, along with every handle on the doors. He held his bow, already notched with an arrow, tightly as he carefully made his way to a door at the end of the hall.

The light through the window was glowing green, and he hid as four scientists ran out quickly, afraid of being caught in the crossfire of the fight. Waiting until he couldn’t hear them anymore, he dashed out and shoved the door open.

The room made his heart stop. Not only was the whole room lit in the green poison, but every knife, needle, and tool was covered in it. There was an empty surgical table in the middle of the room covered in blood, and a wet patch at the head that he knew had to have come from her tears as they tortured her.

Looking around the room, he worried that he hadn’t found her yet when his eyes fell on a small cage in the corner, hidden slightly by crates and other medical equipment. Pushing his body forward quickly, he easily shoved the objects aside and dropped to his knees, reaching inside to grab her wrist.

“Kara?” He squeezed her wrist slightly, looking at the glowing bars that surrounded her. “Come on, Supergirl, open those eyes for me.”

Taking in her appearance, Clint worried that they might have been too late. Her blonde hair was matted with blood, and through the hole in her shirt, he saw the bandages covering her stomach where she’d been shot.

Standing, Clint grabbed a low-detonation explosive arrow and aimed it at the lock on the cage. Firing it with ease, he waited as the metal lock blew off before ripping open the door and rushing to cover her with his own body.

“Come on, honey, wake up for me.” He said again, this time shaking her shoulder.

Though it hurt to hear, he was relieved when she cried out in pain, tears leaking out of her eyes. Setting his hand on her face in comfort, he waited until her eyes landed on him.

“Clint?” Her voice was barely there, and her face scrunched again when she spoke, but it made him smirk.

“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.” He teased, looking around to make sure they were still alone.

Whimpering in pain, she forced herself to keep looking at him. “Is this real?”

“Yep, very real.” He told her. “Everyone’s here. We had to split up, but we’re all here.”

“Kryp…” Her voice gave out as she reached up to him.

He nodded. “I know, I see it.” Looking around, he quickly made a decision and winced down at her. “Okay, this is going to hurt.”

He watched her swallow and steel herself before placing his arms under her and lifting quickly until she was steady in his arms. She cried out again but gripped his shirt in her fist as he hushed her.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” He told her, hurrying away from the cage.

He wanted to get her as far away from there as possible as quickly as he possibly could.

Shoving through the door again, he was happy to find the hallway still empty as he hurried back in Tony’s direction. He could still hear the fighting, so he knew their ruse had worked. Now they just had to make it back to the jet.

“Guys,” he said into the comm. “I got Kara. We’re headed back to the jet.”

“Barton, repeat that.” Steve’s voice came through with unsure fear in his voice.

Understanding perfectly, Clint did just that. “Cap, I have your girl. She’s injured but alive and conscious. I’ll give details on the jet.”

“Headed there now.” Sam’s voice broke through, and the conversation ended.

Clutching her carefully, he hurried down the hallway, coming face to face with Tony. The men he was fighting were all down, and Tony’s faceplate lifted. His eyes were frantic as they landed on her before whipping up again to look at the archer.

“I’ve got her, Tony.” He told the man quickly. “Cover us on the way out, and I’ll give her up on the jet.”

Nodding in agreement, the faceplate fell over his face again, covering his emotions as he ran ahead, ready to block off any attack that might come their way. They missed meeting up with everyone else, but their main goal was to get her to the jet, so they knew everyone else would understand.

Running with her in his arms, Clint could hear that the fight Thor and Hulk had initiated was over. As they approached the aircraft, the bridge opened, and the men ran aboard into the sea of their friends. They were the last ones back, and Sam drew the bridge back up as he lifted the jet into the air and sped off.

Laying their resident alien onto the makeshift table, he winced as she cried out again, and Steve hurried over. “Sorry.”

“Hey, Doll,” Steve said quietly, brushing the hair out of her eyes and smiling at her sadly.

“Steve…” Tears came to her eyes, and she gripped his hand with the little strength she had.

Walking away from the reunited couple, Clint walked over to Tony and Natasha and explained the room and the amount of Kryptonite they had there.

And if Sam flew them back over the base in order to blow it up, no one said a word about it.


	4. Team Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We searched that entire building looking for Kara and found no trace of it.”
> 
> “I’m pretty sure I can help out with that one.”

With a gasp, Kara awoke, her body jumping on the cot, and she threw herself into a sitting position. Her heartbeat was erratic, but as she looked around at the familiarity of the medbay, she felt it start to slow.

Looking down at herself, she saw that she had been changed into a striped blue and purple sweater and a pair of Steve’s sweatpants before being put under the sunlamps they’d created to jumpstart her cells’ reaction to their Earth’s yellow sun. Placing a hand to her head, she realized that the blood that coated her hairline had been cleaned away, and the rest of her body was free of injury as well.

Swinging her legs over the edge of the cot, she slid off and reached up to turn off the lamps. “Well, it’s good to know these things work…”

“I think everyone will agree with you there, Miss Stark.”

Turning, Kara smiled at the doctor, a sweet man who reminded her a lot of her father, Zor-El. “Not that it isn’t great seeing you, Dr. Welch, but I’m a little surprised to see that a few certain people aren’t hovering.”

“They were, Miss.” He smiled warmly as he came toward her. “You were unconscious for a few hours after they returned, but eventually they needed to hold a meeting about what happened and what they are going to do next, I imagine.”

Her eyebrow raised. “And they thought they were going to do that without me? How unfortunate for them.”

“Miss Stark, are you sure you are alright enough to leave the lamps?” The man asked her. “We are still testing them out, so we don’t know yet how long it should take to bring you back to full cell regeneration.”

“I promise you, I am fine.” She told him. “I might have even thought nothing ever happened, except that I can remember being there and being rescued.”

“If you’re sure, then I see no reason to keep you down here.” He told her. “I believe you will find them still in their meeting, as they only left about forty-five minutes ago.”

“Thank you.” She smiled. “I appreciate it.”

Leaving the medbay quickly, she entered the elevator and heard a warm, familiar voice.

_“Miss Stark, it is wonderful to see you up and about again.”_

Smirking, Kara pressed the button for their conference room floor. “Thanks, J. Do they know I’m awake yet?”

_“Not yet, Miss. I can inform them for you if you wish.”_

“No, that’s okay. I’ll be up there in a minute, and they’ll find out anyway.”

_“If I may, seeing you so suddenly may throw them into a shock. Though everyone was upset upon their discovery of you, Captain Rogers and your brother were especially affected. I would tread lightly on your introduction.”_

“Well, that’s no fun.” Kara sighed. “Come on, JARVIS, you know that isn’t our style.”

_“Very well. It seems you have arrived at your floor. Have fun.”_

“Thank you very much.” She smiled cheekily and walked with a bounce in her step toward the room the team was in.

She could hear their voices before she had even exited the elevator.

“They cannot be allowed to get away with what they did,” Rhodey argued, his voice tense.

“They won’t,” Natasha replied to him, her voice just as tense. “We just don’t know where to look next.”

“We must be getting close to the location of Loki’s spear.” Thor’s voice boomed out. “They would not dare risk an attack such as this if they were not afraid of hiding something.”

“Well, it would be helpful to know where it is they’re keeping it because it sure wasn’t at that base.” Sam leaned forward on the table. “We searched that entire building looking for Kara and found no trace of it.”

“I’m pretty sure I can help out with that one.”

At the sound of her voice, the whole team turned around looked at her in shock. Tony stared at her from the front of the table, and she sent him a small nod and smiled to let him know she was okay. Steve’s reaction was to stand from his chair the moment he saw her and step toward her, only for her to roll her eyes and push him back down. Then she plopped into his lap and wrapped her arm around his neck to keep her stable.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Bruce smiled at her.

“Thank you.” She told them and looked at Clint. “Especially you. Of all the things I remember, the main thing is your face above mine when I woke up in that cage.”

The archer shrugged, but she could tell it had affected him. “Hey, man, just doing my job. Couldn’t have you missing and let Cap and Stark here mope around or build something insane to blow everyone up.”

Smiling at his attempt at humor, she faced her brother. “Speaking of my memories, I think I know where they’re keeping the spear.”

“How would you know that?” Steve asked from under her.

“While they…worked…on me, they spoke about it. I guess they didn’t think it would be an issue considering they expected me not to make it out of there.” She felt Steve’s arm tighten on her waist. “They were talking, some complaining, about the ramp-up in security at their base in Sokovia. It sounded like most of their resources and reserves were being sent there from other bases around the world. Sure sounds like someplace a very crucial piece of hardware is being kept.”

“Sokovia?” Tony asked. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Positive. It surprised me that they’d keep it in a place that small, but if they’re ramping up that much equipment and security…”

“That has to be where they’re keeping it.” Sam agreed with her. “I have some stuff to handle, but since it’s going to take a little bit for Kara to get back to full strength-”

“We need to hit now.” The blonde interrupted him, surprising everyone.

“Doll, you just went through some very-”

She looked down at Steve with determination in her eyes. “Babe, I’m fine. The lamps did their job perfectly, even better, actually, and I feel great. We need to do this. If we strike now, we have at least a small chance of catching them by surprise. Besides, I need to do this. I have to show them they didn’t break me or keep me down for long.”

Seeing that he was torn, she turned to face her brother. It was then she noticed how gaunt his face looked and the pale pallor his skin had taken. She guessed her capture was dredging up old memories as he looked back at her, and she knew she needed to show him this wasn’t like last time.

“Tony.”

Everyone watched as the siblings stared at each other in silence for a minute. They didn’t speak or move, but they all knew there was a conversation going on that they were not a part of. Finally, after a long, uncomfortable stretch of silence, the older man sighed.

“Well, who am I to deny the lady what she wants.” He teased, his voice strained. “I mean, with her record, she’ll just follow behind the jet anyway.”

“It’s settled, then,” Steve told the group. “Everyone suit up. Wheels up in twenty.”

“I have to attend a meeting with my boss, so I can’t join in on this,” Rhodey told them reluctantly. “But give them hell for me.”

Standing, Kara moved to him and hugged him. “You know, I will.”

Holding her for a second, he then moved away and nodded to Tony before exiting the room. The only ones left in the room were Tony, Steve, and Kara.

“Kara, are you sure you want to do this?” Her fiancé asked her, concern in his eyes as he looked at her.

Moving back to him, she kissed him gently and pulled back, nodding. “I know you’re worried, but yes, I am. I have to do this. This is who I am, and I’m not going to let some HYDRA thugs take me down and out of the game.”

He nodded, understand clear in his body movements as he hugged her. “God, I thought we’d lost you.”

“Can’t get rid of me that easily, Rogers.” She joked, pulling away and setting a look in her eyes that sent him a message.

Squeezing her arms slightly, he looked up and nodded to Tony before moving to the door. “I’ll meet you guys on the jet.”

Then he too was gone, leaving the siblings alone in the room. Staying where she was, Kara watched her brother carefully as he tapped the table with his knuckle, trying to hold his composure. He walked around the table slowly as he made his way over to her, and she prepared herself for whatever reaction he would be giving her.

She wasn’t expecting him to stand in front of her and frame her face with his hands. Reaching her hands up to grab his wrists, she nuzzled her face into his palm and let his familiar touch settle the nerves she didn’t know were pooling in her stomach. He didn’t say anything as he took in every inch of her healed face, and she smiled sadly at him.

“I’m okay, Tones. I promise.” She assured him. “On the bright side, those lamps we cooked up were actually kind of genius, even for us.”

“Kara…” His voice wavered slightly. “When Clint carried you out of there, I thought-”

“I know what you thought.” She told him. “But this isn’t like last time. I’m stronger now, and I’m trained in my powers. They aren’t going to get away with it. Especially if I’m right, which I usually am, and the spear is there.”

“I know, it’s just…”

This time she moved her hands, so she was framing his face. “I need you to let me do this.”

He sighed. “I know. But I can still be worried, right?”

“Well, of course.” She smiled again. “What kind of older brother would you be if you didn’t?”

He rolled his eyes at her words before huffing out a breath. “Now, can we please let go of each other? The last thing we need is the team seeing us and finding out we actually care about each other.”

An unintentional laugh bubbled up through her throat, and she let it out loudly in his face. “We can’t have that, now can we?”

They dropped their hands, and Tony shrugged her off. “Though the way you and Capsicle display your mushiness in front of everyone, I’m sure the cat’s out of the bag for you.”

Now it was Kara’s turn to roll her eyes. “Oh, hush. You and Pepper are just as bad.”

Walking out of the room, he waved her off. “What was that? I’m busy trying to think about our mission.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I think you mean ‘genius,’ but seeing as you just got your head rattled around, I’ll let it slide.”

“Don’t make me fry your shoes to the floor.” She told him, nudging his shoulder as they got into the elevator. “I’ll do it. You know, I will.”

“Fry my floor, and I’ll throw you out the top story window.”

“You do realize I can fly, right?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll figure it out.”

As the doors closed, the only thing seen was Kara laughing and Tony with an unusual smile on his face.


	5. Storming the Base

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were dead. His team, now more like family, were dead.

Kara watched her team as everyone fought hard against the oncoming fight they had run into as she took out a watchtower that was firing on them. Demolishing the structure with her heat vision so that no one else could ascend it, she saw the Iron Man suit fly above her towards the main bunker and shot off after it.

Rising above the trees, she quickly scanned the building and saw the perimeter surrounding it, but Tony couldn’t see it. “Wait, Tony, don’t!”

She watched as he hit the invisible barrier and ricocheted into the air. “Shit.”

“Language,” Steve said from below, riding his motorcycle fast through the forest. “JARVIS, what’s the view from upstairs?”

_“The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker’s technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we’ve taken.”_

“Kara was right,” Thor said as he landed and used his hammer to take out a dozen more soldiers. “Loki’s scepter must be here. Strucker couldn’t mount this defense without it.”

“Told you.” She smirked from the air before growling at the flying soldier that approached her.

“At long last,” Thor muttered, having waited years for this day to come.

Natasha jumped over a barricade and swung her legs around two soldiers' necks, effectively strangling them. “‘At long last’ is lasting a little long, boys.”

“Agreed,” Kara grunted as she was slammed into a tree. “I don’t like how this is going.”

“Yeah.” Clint hid behind a tree as he watched an arrow explode one of the bunkers. “I think we lost the element of surprise.”

“You got something to say to me, Barton?” Kara retorted, rolling her eyes.

Before he could respond, she heard her brother’s voice fill her ear. “Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said ‘language’?”

“I know.” She heard her fiancé groan before watching as he flipped off of the motorcycle and threw it at an oncoming truck. “It just slipped out.”

“You’re really taking the whole ‘dad joke’ thing to a whole new level.” Clint teased, apparently forgetting his annoyance at their loss of surprise.

“You have no idea,” Kara replied, knowing they were getting a rise out of him.

“Really, babe?” Steve asked sarcastically, and Kara laughed out loud as she used her heat vision on the men surrounding him.

Flying away from that area, she focused again on the main building but paused herself in mid-flight, grabbing a soldier and flinging him away effortlessly. “Uh…guys? Is there any chance Barry’s in town?”

“I don’t think so; why?” Tony asked her quickly.

“Because I’m pretty sure I just saw a running blur.”

Just as she spoke, she heard Clint groan and took off in his direction.

“We have an enhanced in the field,” Steve told them.

“Clint’s hit,” Nat said, a slight tone of panic in her voice. “Somebody wanna deal with that bunker?”

A loud roar filled the air, and everyone knew that Hulk was taking care of her request.

“Stark, we really need to get inside,” Steve said as he fought.

“I’m closing in.”

“So am I,” Kara told them, approaching from the side of the building that was opposite her brother.

“JARVIS, am I closing in?” She heard him ask and rolled her eyes. “Do you see a power source for that shield?”

_“There’s a particle-wave below the north tower.”_

“Great. I want to poke it with something.”

Sighing heavily, Kara waited as he fired a missile at the area and finally saw the shield disappear. She shot towards it instantly, flying through a group of soldiers waiting to attack her.

“The drawbridge is down, people.”

On the other side of the battlefield, Thor landed next to Steve. “The enhanced?”

“He’s a blur.” The super soldier told him. “All the new players we’ve faced, I’ve only ever seen this once. And like Tony said before, I highly doubt Barry’s in town.”

“Clint’s hit pretty bad, guys.” Nat’s voice filled their comms. “We’re going to need evac.”

“I can get Barton to the jet,” Thor told them. “The sooner we’re gone, the better. You and Stark secure the scepter. Kara, see if you can get a visual on the blur.”

“On it.” She told him, moving away from the building.

Flying over the trees, she moved her eyes frantically around the area before finally locating her target. “Well, it’s definitely a person. I’m guessing someone like Barry, just…not on our side.”

“Find the scepter.” She heard Thor tell Steve before seeing him fly through the air.

“And for gosh sakes, watch your language.”

Kara didn’t bother to hide her grin at her brother’s teasing of Steve.

The man in question sighed. “That’s not going away anytime soon.”

* * *

Inside the building, Tony walked through the pile of unconscious bodies to the computer across from him. “Okay, JARVIS, you know, I want it all. Make sure you copy Hill at HQ.”

Looking around the dark, dingy room, he narrowed his eyes. “I know you’re hiding more than files. Hey, J? Give me an IR scan of the room real quick.”

 _“The wall to your left. I’m reading steel reinforcement,”_ JARVIS told him. _“and an air current.”_

“Please be a secret door. Please be a secret.” Tony whispered to himself as he pushed on the section of wall JARVIS had indicated.

It was.

“Yay!”

Walking through the doorway, he was met with darkness. Feeling the wall in order to find his way down the hallway, Tony finally walked into a large room.

 _“Guys, I got Strucker.”_ Steve’s voice filled his ear.

Tony’s mind was reeling as he answered. “Yeah, I got…something bigger.”

As he approached the center of the room, he found what looked to be a disassembled robot before a blue light caught his eye. As he realized what it was, his eyes widened, and he moved to stand by it.

He didn’t, however, see the young woman coming up behind him.

* * *

“So, Tony grabbed the scepter?”

Kara nodded as she landed next to her fiancé. “That’s what it sounds like. I know he’s a smartass, but he wouldn’t lie about something like this.”

Steve nodded in agreement. “Looks like you were right, then.”

Her eyebrows flew up. “Are you saying there are times where I am not right?”

The soldier’s body stiffened as he looked at her. “I just…what I meant what…”

“Oh, Rao.” Kara chuckled, putting her hand on his face to kiss him. “You’re adorable when you’re panicking.”

“That was dirty,” He teased her.

“Hey, you knew what I was like when you met me. It was your choice to shackle yourself to me for life.” She smirked. “There’s no going back now, mister.”

“Never.” This time he grinned too as he sighed and attached the shield back to his suit. “Everyone else okay?”

 _“We’re good, but Clint needs to get back to HQ,”_ Nat told them.

“Okay, we’ll meet up with Tony and-” Steve cut off as Kara spun to look at the destroyed building. “Kara?”

“Something’s wrong with Tony.”

Then she shot into the air and flew as fast as she could to find him.

* * *

It was horrible.

Tony felt his whole body jerk back as he dodged the massive Chitauri ship. Then he turned, and his stomach hit the floor.

They were dead. His team, now more like family, were dead. He watched as the room changed to show a barren battlefield; his teammates sprawled out over the rocks with their bodies unmoving. Hurrying over to the group, he knelt by Steve, whose shield was ripped in half, and tried to feel for a pulse.

He jumped when the man gripped his wrist and started to speak. “You…could have…saved…us.”

Then his arm went limp, and he was gone. Looking around, Tony’s heart sped up as he tripped on the rocks and slid himself down next to his sister’s bloody form. Her eyes were closed, and she looked like she had when Clint carried her out of the torture room she’d been held in. This time, however, she had a large Kryptonite dagger embedded in her stomach.

Her breaths came in shallow spurts as he stared at him. “Why…”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” He told her quickly. “You’ll be okay. Don’t speak.”

“Why…” The words choked on the blood in her mouth. “didn’t you do more?”

Then her chest froze, and her head lulled slightly to the side. Her eyes were wide and vacant, staring off into the distance.

The sight made tears come to the engineer’s eyes. This had always been his worst fear, and now he had watched it happen right in front of him. He let himself grieve for only a second before loud, distant screeching filled his ears, and he looked up to find a massive breach in the sky with a spaceship on the other side.

Jerking back in shock, the room was back to how it was before, and his deceased teammates were nowhere in sight. Looking around, he forced his mind to reorient itself to his surroundings and took a steadying breath.

Holding his arm out, he waited until he felt the familiar weight of his gauntlet before walking over and grabbing the scepter from its pedestal.

As he did that, a blur of red and blue flew into the room. “Hey! Who the hell are you?”

Turning, the elder Stark saw a young couple standing behind him. Before either superhero could do anything, the man grabbed the woman, and they were gone.

“Shit.” Kara sighed. “Tony? Are you okay? What happened?”

Blinking at his very-much-alive sister, he moved forward and pulled her into a one-armed hug. Though she was confused by the act, she held him tightly. They stayed that way for only a moment before he pulled back.

Kara held out her hand for his, waiting to speak until he took it. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Nodding, Tony glanced only once more behind him as he followed his sister out of the room.


	6. After the Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Thor, report on the Hulk.”
> 
> “The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims.”
> 
> Kara visibly facepalmed and sent an incredulous look to her childhood friend.

As the Quinjet flew through the air, Kara watched her brother carefully. He hadn’t spoken about what happened inside that room before she had arrived, but she could only describe the look in his eye as a mixture of grief and pure fear.

“Hey, you okay?”

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she leaned into Steve’s side. “How’s Clint doing?”

“He’ll be fine.” The man in blue shrugged. “Natasha’s with him now.”

Kara nodded, understanding the special connection they had as friends. It was much like her own relationship with Barry or Kit, and she knew that if Barry were hurt in battle, she’d be right there with him as well.

“You didn’t answer my question.” The blonde alien looked at her fiancé. “Are you okay?”

Holding her bottom lip between her teeth, she caressed the arm he brought around her stomach. “I don’t know.”

“What happened down there?”

“I saw the two enhanced.”

He froze. “What?”

She looked up at him. “You were right; the man is just like Barry. The girl…she has some sort of power. I think she got into Tony’s head.”

“Well, that would be a first.” He joked.

Kara pulled away and shook her head. “I’m serious, Steve.”

He sent her an apologetic look. “Why do you think she did that?”

This time she let her gaze fall to the floor. “When I got there, he looked…terrified. More so than I’ve ever seen before.”

“Have you asked him about it?”

“No.” She shrugged. “I haven’t had the chance, and I doubt he will want to.”

“You should still try.” He told her. “If it is upsetting you, you need to fix it.”

“Yeah, maybe I will do that now.”

He led her to the central part of the jet and squeezed her hand before going over to stand with Thor. Fixing her sights on her brother, she walked over and plopped in the chair next to him. He spun in his chair and smiled at her.

“You all done with your make-out session?”

Rolling her eyes, she leaned forward. “Are we going to talk about it?”

“About what?”

She leveled him with a glare. “You know what.”

“No.”

“Tony-”

“I said, no, okay? I don’t want to think about it again.” He told her, and she realized that he was more shaken up than she knew. “I’m sorry, I just…want to forget it.”

“Okay.”

“Kara, seriously, I just-” He paused. “Wait; what?”

“Tony, I’m not going to push you. You weren’t going to make me talk after the Black Mercy thing, and I’m affording you that same courtesy.” She laid her hand on his knee. “But I am here if you need me. You know that, right?”

“How could I forget? You never leave…” He teased, but she knew he was listening now.

Behind them, Natasha was speaking to Bruce. “How long before you trust me?”

The scientist shook his head. “It’s not _you_ I don’t trust.”

She looked down. “Thor, report on the Hulk.”

“The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims.”

Kara visibly facepalmed and sent an incredulous look to her childhood friend. Instantly, he tried to backtrack.

“Uh, but not the screams of the dead, of course. No, no, wounded screams.” Thor stuttered. “Mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining, and tales of sprained deltoids and gout.”

Looking back to Kara, the god had a hopeful look on his face. She could only shrug and wince before he turned away in awkward guilt.

Tony, thankfully, knew how to step in. “Hey, Banner, Dr. Cho is on her way in from Seoul. Is it okay if she sets up in your lab?”

“Uh, yeah, she knows her way around,” Bruce responded, still slightly green.

“Thanks,” Tony replied before dropping his voice. “Tell her to prep everything. Barton’s gonna need the full treatment.”

 _“Very good, sir,”_ JARVIS responded.

Kara stood. “Hey, why don’t you go join the others? I’ll take over for a bit.”

“You’re going to drive this thing?” He asked her suspiciously.

“Uh, yeah? Why not?”

“Because…”

“I swear to Rao if you say it’s because I’m a woman…”

“God, no. I don’t care about that.” He sent her a look of disbelief. “It’s because I’ve seen you fly. I don’t want you pushing this thing to its limits.”

“You’re a hypocrite; you know that?” Pushing him out of the chair, she shoved him in the direction of her friend and fiancé before plopping down in front of the screens. “I was there when you first started, remember?”

_“Is there any way I can assist you, miss?”_

Rolling her eyes at JARVIS’s attempt to check on her, Kara sighed. “Contact Layna for me, will you? Tell her she better have her homework done before we get back, or she’s grounded.”

_“Right away, miss.”_

* * *

When they arrived back at the tower, Kara stood aside so the medical team could get to Clint and start patching him up as quickly as possible. As they sped past, Maria Hill walked onto the jet.

“Hey, Boss.”

Tony shook his head and gestured to Steve. “He’s the boss. I just pay for everything and design everything and make everyone look cooler.”

“Excuse me, who does that?” Kara cocked a brow in his direction as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I said what I said.” He said unapologetically.

Steve stuck his shield to his suit again and moved past the squabbling siblings. “What’s the word on Strucker?”

“NATO’s got him,” Maria replied.

“The two enhanced?” He moved to walk beside her as they left the jet, and Kara, deciding her brother was a lost cause, followed them out.

Maria handed him her tablet. “Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building.”

“Sokovia’s had a rough history,” Kara commented quietly.

“It’s nowhere special, but it’s on the way to everywhere special.” The other woman told them.

“Their abilities?” Steve wondered as they turned the corner.

“He’s got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, and mental manipulation.”

As they stopped at the elevator, Steve sent her a confused look, so Kara patted him on the back. “He’s fast, and she’s weird.”

Nodding, Steve handed the tablet back to its owner as the couple stepped into the waiting elevator car. “Well, they’re gonna show up again.”

“Oh, definitely.” Kara agreed with him. “There’s no way that’s the last we’ve seen of them.”

“File says they volunteered for Strucker’s experiments,” Hill told them. “It’s nuts.”

“Right,” Steve said as Kara pressed the button for their floor. “What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?”

“We’re not at war, Captain.” She said carefully.

“But they are,” Kara said quietly, leaning against the back of the car.

Then the doors closed, and the conversation ended.


	7. A Safe World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Peace in our time. Imagine that.”

While Steve stayed upstairs helping Layna with her history project, Kara followed her brother into his lab a few floors down where Bruce was waiting for them. Through the window, they could see Cho fixing up Clint.

“How’s he doing?” He asked them.

Tony shrugged. “Unfortunately, he’s still Barton.”

“That’s terrible.” Bruce joked back.

Rolling her eyes at their teasing, Kara swatted them both on the arm. “He’s fine. He’s thirsty.”

Ignoring her, Tony led them to the middle of the room. “Alright, look alive, JARVIS. It’s playtime. We’ve only got a couple of days with this joystick, so let’s make the most of it.”

Tugging on her grey shirt sleeve, Kara moved to one of the desks to start working. “Update me on the structural and compositional analysis.

_“The scepter is alien.”_

She snorted. “So am I. Tell me something I don’t know.”

_“There are elements I can’t qualify.”_

“So, there’s elements you can?” Tony moved to stand beside her.

 _“The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside,”_ the AI told them. _“something powerful.”_

“Like a reactor?”

_“I believe I’m deciphering code.”_

The siblings glanced at each other before their gazes returned to the scepter. They both grinned.

* * *

“What’s the rumpus?”

Kara glanced up from her computer as Tony walked back into the room with Bruce. They’d been checking on Clint, but as she’d overheard, he was going to be just as good if not better than ever. Now they needed to show their scientist friend what they found.

“The scepter.” She told him.

“You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So we’ve been analyzing the gem inside. You may recognize…” Tony picked up a device and shifted it toward the open walkway.

Bruce nodded. “JARVIS.”

_“Doctor.”_

Kara watched as a yellow, fragmented ball lit up and moved as it spoke. They’d figured out a while ago how to make JARVIS come to life as a program, but she was always thrilled to see it in person.

“Started out, JARVIS was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion.” Tony told their friend. “He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper.”

“Oh,” Bruce responded, unsure where this was going.

“Hey!” Kara glared at her brother. “I do a lot of the work, too, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Her brother ignored her. “Top of the line.”

“Yes,” Bruce responded in the same tone.

_“I suspect not for long.”_

Kara waited as Tony made the same motion with the device, and another orb, much like JARVIS’ but blue, popped up. “Meet the competition.”

She smiled to herself as Bruce’s whole body lit up with wonder and awe. He moved to walk around the image, and she saw that his face matched his body language.

“It’s beautiful.”

“If you had to guess,” Tony continued. “what’s it look like it’s doing?”

Bruce barely waited for him to finish his sentence. “Like it’s thinking. I mean, this could be…” He shook his head. “It’s not a human mind.”

“Mmm-mmm.” Tony agreed.

“I mean, look at this.” Bruce was amazed. “They’re like neurons firing.”

“Down in Strucker’s lab, I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door.”

Now Bruce froze, a shocked look replacing the amazed one. “Artificial Intelligence.”

“If that is what Strucker is planning, I’m glad we stopped him when we did,” Kara told them as she hopped down from her stool. “I just wonder how Loki got it in the first place, and if he even knew what it was.”

“That, my dear sister, is something to ask Thor before he leaves again so that he can look into it.” Toy patted her on the shoulder. “Now, unfortunately, I think JARVIS here may need some help repairing the Legion. Seeing as he’s here with us, you think you can head down there and take a look?”

She nodded and sighed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I did create them, after all.”

She was gone a minute later, and Bruce narrowed his eyes at the engineer. “You’re planning something.”

“What?”

“You sent Kara away,” Bruce told him. “What are you up to?”

Tony walked to him and sighed. “This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron.”

Bruce chuckled. “I thought Ultron was a fantasy.”

“Yesterday it was.” He looked at his friend. “If we can harness this power, apply this to the Iron Legion protocol?”

Bruce looked unsure. “That’s a mad-sized ‘if.’”

“Our job is ‘if.’” Tony reminded him as they walked away from their primary work area. “What if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach, turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for Veronica?”

“Don’t hate. I helped design Veronica.” Bruce told Tony.

“As a worst-case measure, right?” Tony urged him again. “How about a best case? What if the world was safe? What if, next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn’t get past the bouncer?”

“The only people threatening the planet would be people.” Bruce realized.

Tony stopped walking and looked at Bruce. “I want to apply this to the Ultron program. But JARVIS can’t download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here. That’s three days. Give me three days.”

Bruce’s brows raised. “So, you’re going for artificial intelligence, and you don’t want to tell the team?”

“Right,” Tony admitted. “That’s right. You know why? Because we don’t have time for a city hall debate. I don’t want to hear ‘the man was not meant to meddle’ medley.” Tony sighed. “I see a suit of armor around the world.

“Sounds like a cold world, Tony.”

Tony’s body deflated. “I’ve seen colder.”

Turning, he looked through the window and watched as Kara worked below them, unaware of their conversation. The image of her dead, tortured body flashed in his mind, and he had to work intensely not to shudder at the memory of it.

“This one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron.”

Bruce looked to where his eyes had wandered and sighed. He knew that it was the wrong thing to do, especially without telling the team first. But how could he deny his best friend something when he looked so upset and worried.

Tony walked away and fiddled with the device in his hand. “Peace in our time. Imagine that.”

The thing was, Bruce could imagine it. He imagined a world in which he didn’t have to Hulk out the moment something bad happened. A world where they wouldn’t have to be on alert for some crazy threat all the time. A world where Kara and Steve could get married and not worry that they might lose each other if another alien invasion happened, where Layna could grow up as normally as any other child.

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and went to start working beside his friend.


	8. Worthy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What’s up with your ear?” Steve asked her, noticing how she’d been rubbing it.
> 
> The woman sighed. “I don’t know. It’s been ringing all night, but I can’t figure out why.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the pause in updates, guys. I had a family member pass away, then found out I was exposed to COVID at the funeral so I had to quarantine and it's been rough. I'll do my best to keep a consistent schedule, but please be patient with me!

“I was so sorry to hear about what happened to you and your planet.”

The party was in full swing as Kara spoke with the wife of one of the elderly military personnel. “Thank you. It was a long time ago, but it doesn’t get easier. Being an Avenger helps, though.”

“Yes, this must be right up your alley.” The woman smiled kindly.

Kara shrugged, rubbing her ear. “I guess. I never had any of these powers before I came here, but thanks to my brother, I’ve been able to use them for good.”

“Well, you certainly have some wonderful people in your life, honey.” The woman smiled at Steve and Sam as they walked up to the two women. “Captain Rogers.”

“Mrs. Crowley. It’s nice to see you again.” He nodded his greeting. “This is Sam Wilson, our newest Avenger.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Sam told her.

“Well, I suppose I should leave you young ones to talk.” Mrs. Crowley sighed.

“Have a lovely evening,” Kara told her before turning and giving Steve a small kiss. “What have you guys been up to?”

“Kicking your man’s butt in pool, that’s what.” Sam joked.

“He better not be losing all of our money on that game.” Kara teased. “I may just have to win it all back later.”

“Oh, you think you can handle this?” San laughed. “Bring it on, Supergirl.”

“What’s up with your ear?” Steve asked her, noticing how she’d been rubbing it.

The woman sighed. “I don’t know. It’s been ringing all night, but I can’t figure out why.”

“It’s not Layna, right?” Sam asked them.

Steve shook his head. “She’s not here. She’s staying with a friend tonight.”

“Oh boy, wasn’t that a fight.” Kara chuckled.

“Besides, JARVIS would tell us if anything was wrong.” Her fiancé finished for her.

“So, how was Sokovia?”

…

“It’s a trick.”

Kara laughed at Clint’s suggestion as the small group sat around and drank. The party had long since ended, and now the only people remaining were Kara, Steve, Tony, Clint, Maria, Helen, Thor, Natasha, Rhodey, and Bruce.

“No, no,” Thor told him as he clinked his glass against the one Steve held out. “it’s much more than that.”

“Ah,” Clint made his voice deeper to imitate Odin. “whosoever be he worth shall haveth the power.”

The group laughed this time, and Thor smirked at the blonde alien who sat next to him.

“Whatever, man! It’s a trick!”

Gesturing to Mjolnir, Thor smiled. “Please, be my guest.”

“Oh, this will be good,” Kara told her friend and leaned back to watch the show.

“Come on, really?” Clint wondered, watching everyone carefully.

“Yeah,” Tony told him, humor in his tone.

“Oh, this is gonna be beautiful.” Rhodey teased.

“Clint, you’ve had a tough week,” Tony told the archer. “We won’t hold it against you if you can’t get it up.”

As everyone laughed again, Clint pointed at Thor. “You know I’ve seen this before, right?” Then he grabbed it and grunted at the effort as he tried to lift the hammer. “I still don’t know how you do it!”

“Smell the silent judgment?” Tony teased him.

“Oh, leave him alone, Tony.” Kara smiled. “Like you could do any better.”

“Yes, please, Stark! By all means.” Clint pointed at the man.

“Okay…” Hill held in a laugh as Tony made a grand show out of his attempt.

“Uh-oh.” Rhodey chuckled.

“Never one to shrink from an honest challenge,” Tony told them.

“Even though you should.” Kara rolled her eyes.

“It’s physics.” He said, ignoring her as he slipped his hand through the loop at the end. “Right, so, if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?”

“Yes, of course,” Thor said jokingly.

“I will be reinstituting prima nocta.” He told everyone, and they groaned at his statement.

Then he tried to pull it, but as it didn’t move, he held up a finger. “Be right back.”

He was back shortly after grabbing the gauntlet from his suit and tried again. When that didn’t work, he had Rhodey help him and began arguing.

“Are you even pulling?”

“Are you on my team?”

“Just represent. Pull.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

When they couldn’t manage to lift it, Bruce figured he’d take a shot. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to, he made a joke out of it, pretending to turn into the Hulk, but no one was amused. They just wanted to see someone lift the damn thing.

“Fine,” Bruce mumbled. “Kara?”

Holding her hands up in surrender, she shook her head. “Nope. I’m not even going to go there.”

Shaking his head at her silliness, Steve stood. Everyone cheered him on, and Kara sat forward, waiting to see what would happen with this one.

“Go ahead, Steve. No pressure,” Tony egged him on.

As Steve rolled up his sleeves, Clint cheered him on. “Come on, Cap.”

Then Kara watched as he lifted and the hammer moved slightly. She wasn’t sure anyone else had seen it, but a quick look told her Thor had. Glancing back at her fiancé, she watched as he tried again, only to have nothing happen.

As he stepped back, Thor relaxed beside her and laughed. “Nothing.”

Steve shook his head but shared a look with Kara, letting her know he’d seen the god’s reaction as well. Then all eyes turned to Natasha.

“And, Widow?” Bruce offered.

The redhead chuckled and shook her head. “Oh, no, no. Like Kara, that’s not a question I need answered.”

Then Tony spoke again. “All deference to the Man Who Wouldn’t Be King, but it’s rigged.”

“You bet your ass.” Clint agreed as he went to grab a drink.

“Steve,” Maria spoke up. “he said a bad language word.”

This time, Kara let the laugh slip from her lips loudly and moved to bury her face in his shoulder.

“Did you tell everyone about that?” Steve looked at Tony, trying to shove a still-laughing Kara off of him.

Ignoring him, Tony looked at Thor. “The handle’s imprinted, right? Like a security code. ‘Whosoever is carrying Thor’s fingerprints’ is, I think, the literal translation.”

Taking a deep breath, Thor stood. “Yes. It’s a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one. You’re all not worthy.”

As everyone laughed and groaned at his answer, Kara’s hand shot up to her ear. “What the fuck?”

The ringing had grown and was now bringing her to her knees. Holding both hands over her ears, she slid to the floor and tried to block out the noise.

“Kara? What’s going on?” Steve asked her, setting his drink down just as the rest of the group heard the ringing as well.

“Worthy.” At the sound of a voice, everyone turned. “No. How could you be worthy? You’re all killers.”

Using Steve’s arm, Kara stood and stared at the half-constructed robot standing in front of them.

“Stark.” Steve’s voice was tight, and he was poised for battle.

“JARVIS.” Tony tried signaling the trusty AI.

“I’m sorry,” the robot said. “I was asleep. Or I was a—dream.”

“Reboot Legionnaire OS.” Tony tried again. “We got a buggy suit.”

“There was this terrible noise. And I was tangled in…in…strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.”

“You killed someone?” Steve asked it, trying to get a feel for what they might be up against.

“Wouldn’t have been my first call.” It told him. “But, down in the real world, we’re faced with ugly choices.”

“Who sent you?” Thor asked this time.

_“I see a suit of armor around the world.”_

At the recording of Tony’s voice, Kara whipped her gaze to look at her brother. “Tony, what is that?”

“Ultron,” Bruce said in shock.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She responded but was interrupted by the robot.

“In the flesh,” Ultron responded. “Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I’m ready. I’m on a mission.”

“What mission?” Nat asked him.

“Peace in our time.”

Then the wall exploded, and all hell broke loose.


	9. I Am Ultron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything had turned into chaos.

Everything had turned into chaos.

The minute the bots smashed through the wall, the team jumped into action. As Steve kicked the coffee table up to protect himself, Maria, and Helen, Kara shot into the air and grabbed onto one of the flying enemies. Punching it, they flew through the window, and the glass shattered everywhere.

“Okay, next time, not so much glass.” She groaned, hearing it shatter in other places around the room. “Oh, come on, what’s your problem?”

Finally getting her bearings, she used her heat vision to sear it in half and flew back into the room. While Thor and Steve battled the other two bots, Kara’s eyes were set on Ultron. Shooting forward, she took her heels off and threw them with enough force to take out another bot. She was almost at Ultron when something hard slammed into her from the side.

Crashing into a wall, she looked up to see the top half of the bot she had fought with hovering above her. “Oh, great, it’s you again.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Natasha and Bruce jump over the bar and hoped to Rao that he didn’t Hulk out. Though he would have come in handy, he probably would also tear the tower to pieces.

Then she looked past the bot, and her eyes went wide. “They grabbed the scepter!”

Using her freeze breath to build ice on the bot, she flew through it, so it shattered. Then she shot out of the building and followed the bot that had stolen Loki’s scepter. She had to get it back, or there would be even more hell to pay.

Ignoring the way her black and silver dress ruffled in the night’s breeze, she flew as fast as she could to keep up with the bot. It seemed faster than before, but she attributed that to Ultron’s interference. They flew for miles before she caught up, but as she reached out to grab the scepter, the bot dove and was gone.

Though she followed its motions, she had lost track of it and could no longer track it. “What the hell?”

It had seemingly vanished into thin air along with the scepter, and Kara hovered in the air, hoping to find some trace of it. When she knew she’d lost it, she growled and shot back to the tower to help her friends.

* * *

Steve was pissed. Not only had the robots attacked them, but their teammates had gone behind their backs to build it.

Focusing on the fight, he leapt into the air, wrapping his arms around the bot that was shooting toward Natasha. Throwing punches at it, he grunted as it flew backward, causing his body to slam into the wall.

_“We are here to help.”_

“Stark!” He yelled, hoping Tony would shut these things down, and Kara was now gone.

“One sec.” He replied, and Steve looked up to see him in a similar position around the robot’s frame. “One sec, I got this.”

Looking around, he saw another bot advancing on the piano. Hearing a muffled cry of panic, he realized Helen had hidden back there but had now been found.

_“Please back away. Please back away.”_

Running over, he ripped it away from her just before it could shoot. “Thor!”

As though his friend could read his mind, the Asgardian smashed his hammer through the metal object, effectively destroying it. Above them, Tony was still fighting against his foe, who was chanting.

_“…is unsafe…is unsafe…”_

Then he jammed his instrument into its neck, and they fell, rolling down the stairs.

“Hey, Cap!”

Looking up at Clint, he saw his shield coming at him and caught it with the ease of muscle memory, and threw it at an oncoming bot. It shattered, and Steve realized it was the only way to destroy them, which was becoming increasingly annoying as the night went on. He made a mental note to have Kara update that when she worked on them next.

As the thought entered his mind, twin beams of heat shot past him in Ultron’s direction, but it deflected them with its hand. As she landed next to him, Steve looked down with questions of the scepter in his eyes.

She shook her head in guilt as the rest of their team rejoined them and stood in formation against the remaining bot.

Shaking its head, Ultron sighed. “That was dramatic.”

Kara glared at it, hatred in her eyes now. “You need to stand down. Now.”

“Ah, yes. The alien.” It told her. “I’m sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn’t think it through.”

Steve moved forward, crunching the glass beneath his feet, ready to fight at any second. Ultron paid him no mind.

“You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change.” It told them. “How is humanity saved if it’s not allowed to evolve?” Moving forward, it picked up one of the destroyed bots. “With these? These…puppets.” It crushed the head in its hand. “There’s only one path to peace.

“The Avengers’ Extinction.”

Before anyone could make another sound, Thor threw his hammer at it, crushing it into tiny pieces. Catching Mjolnir with ease, he watched with his team as oil spilled out of the robot, like blood.

_“I had strings, but now I’m free…”_

The room fell into silence as the light flickered and faded from its faceplate.

“Well, that just ruined Pinocchio for me,” Kara muttered.

“What the hell was that?” Maria asked, breathing heavily and looking at Tony.

“That was Ultron. Bruce and I had been trying to see if we could get it to work, but…”

“But nothing.” Steve jumped in. “You shouldn’t have done that without talking to us!”

“Oh, Rao,” Kara said suddenly, moving away from the group. “The lab…”

Running to the shattered windowpane Rhodey had been flung through earlier, she jumped through and landed barefoot on a pile of glass before taking off into the lab to check for any damages.

The group followed quickly after her.


	10. First Line of Defense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This is the second time in our lives that we’ve lost Jarvis."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I think for now I will plan on updating this story once a week. I'm juggling a lot at the moment and this feels like the only way to keep me sane. This way I can also catch up with the writing of the series so I have stuff to post.

“All our work is gone.”

Pacing next to Steve, his jacket around her shoulders, Kara crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. “Ultron cleared out. He used the Internet as an escape hatch.”

“Ultron,” Steve repeated the name.

“He’s been in everything,” Natasha told them, now wearing a hoodie over her dress. “Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other.”

Rhodey stood, holding his arm. “He’s in your files; he’s in the Internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?”

“Nuclear codes.” Maria stopped picking glass out of her feet at the thought.

“Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can,” Rhodey suggested.

“Nukes?” Nat asked. “He said he wanted _us_ dead.”

“He didn’t say ‘dead.’ He said ‘extinct.’” Steve reminded them.

“He also said he killed somebody,” Clint added.

“There wasn’t anyone else in the building,” Maria told him.

Tony sighed. “Yes, there was.”

Walking forward, he waved a device, and the broken remains of JARVIS popped up. Instantly, Kara felt lightheaded and slid into a crouch, her hands covering her agape mouth.

“Oh, Rao.” Her eyes filled with tears as she thought of losing their long-time friend again. “JARVIS.”

She felt Steve’s hand on her shoulder as Bruce went to inspect the orb. “What? This is insane.”

Looking down at his fiancé, Steve sighed. “JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense.”

“No,” Bruce told him. “Ultron could have assimilated JARVIS. This isn’t strategy. This is rage.”

Kara’s ear’s picked up on fast approaching footsteps, and suddenly Thor’s hand was around Tony’s throat.

“It’s going around,” Clint muttered.

Jumping up, Kara grabbed Thor’s hand and attempted to pull it away from her brother. “Hey! Thor, back off.”

“Come on, use your words, buddy.” Tony croaked out.

“I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark.” The god told him.

“Thor!” Kara yelled, fearing for her brother. “Let him go!”

“Kara-”

“She’s right, Thor,” Steve said sternly. “The Legionnaire.”

As Thor dropped Tony, Kara grabbed him and kept him from falling. Checking to make sure he wasn’t injured, she kept a hand on his arm as she listed to Thor speak.

He continued to glare at Tony. “The trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it’s headed north.”

“That’s about where I lost them, too,” Kara told her fiancé, still feeling guilty for losing them.

“And it has the scepter.” Thor reminded them. “Now we have to retrieve it, again.”

“Genie’s out of that bottle,” Nat spoke up from across the room. “Clear and present is Ultron.”

“I don’t understand,” Helen said quietly, turning the attention to her. “You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?”

Tony was silent for a moment before suddenly breaking out into laughter. Bruce shook his head as a warning sign to the man, but Kara knew he wouldn’t stop. Observing the team, she saw Thor start to move forward again.

“You think this is funny?” He asked her brother.

“No.” Tony turned, the laughter still on his pace. “It’s probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so…?” He started laughing again. “It is. It’s so terrible.”

“This could have been avoided if you hadn’t played with something you don’t understand,” Thor told him, moving forward.

“No. I’m sorry,” Tony told him, sobering now. “I’m sorry. It is funny. It’s a hoot that you don’t get why we need this.”

“Tony, maybe this might not be the time,” Bruce muttered from behind them.

Spinning to look at his friend, Tony scoffed. “Really? That’s it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?”

“Only when I’ve created a murder bot,” Bruce said, his eyes wide.

“We didn’t.” Tony reminded him. “We weren’t even close. Were we close to an interface?”

“Well, you did something right. And you did it right here.” Steve interjected.

“Steve, that’s not fair,” Kara said quietly, only to have him turn on her.

“Were you in on this too?” He snapped at her. “Did you have a hand in creating this?”

Her expression slowly changed from worried to angry. “Excuse me?”

Seeing the hurt in her eyes, he turned away again. “The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD.”

“Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?” Tony asked, causing the group to groan.

Kara stayed silent.

“No, it’s never come up,” Rhodey told him sarcastically.

“Saved New York?”

“Never heard that,” Rhodey said again.

“Recall that?” Tony asked, ignoring his friend. “A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We’re standing three hundred feet below it.

“We’re the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there, that’s…that’s the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?”

Steve sighed, glancing at Kara before looking back at Tony. “Together.”

Tony moved forward. “We’ll lose.”

“Then we’ll do that together, too.” He told his soon-to-be brother-in-law. “Thor’s right. Ultron’s calling us out. I’d like to find him before he’s ready for us. The world’s a big place. Let’s start making it smaller.”

Finishing his speech, Steve watched as Kara walked out of the room. Nodding to the others to get everything started, he hurried after her, and once they were away from the group, he grabbed her arm to turn him around.

He wasn’t expecting her to smack him across the face.

“How dare you!” She hissed, tears in her angry eyes.

“Kara, you know I didn’t mean that.” He tried, but she shook her head.

“Oh, yeah? How did you mean it then?”

Knowing he’d been backed into a corner, he frowned. “You know that this is wrong. Ultron wants us dead, and your brother is in there acting like this is no big deal.”

“That is definitely not how he’s acting, Steve.” She informed him.

“He thinks this is all a joke!”

“No, he doesn’t!”

“He’s laughing!”

“He’s laughing because he’s terrified!” That shut him up. “When we first met, I told you that Tony handles grief and panic differently than other people. He’s trying to preserve whatever sanity he still has left.”

“Grief?” Steve was confused. “What grief?”

“This is the second time in our lives that we’ve lost Jarvis.” She reminded him, her voice sad. “This version may just have been an AI, but it was still like having our old Jarvis around. That’s why we created him that way. And now he’s gone… _again_.”

“Kara, I’m sorry.” Her fiancé told her. “I didn’t mean what I said, and I shouldn’t have even said it. I don’t like people keeping things from me; you know that. When I found out that this happened behind our backs, I just…” He sighed. “I’m sorry, alright?”

“No,” she told him. “It’s not alright. I’m your fiancé. You need to trust me, just like I trust you. But you didn’t, and that hurts. A lot.”

“Kara…”

“I need some air. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She turned and started walking away. “Please don’t follow me.”


	11. Wakanada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "If everyone keeps coming after him instead of understanding that this is all a front, I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.”

Kara was sitting on a desk against the far wall when Steve and Clint walked in. It had been a long night for everyone, but not as long as it had been for Kara and Steve.

_Once everyone had retired to their floors for the night, Kara had changed into more comfortable clothes and grabbed a bottle of wine, going to sit on their balcony. She had only been out there for about ten minutes when Steve finally joined her._

_“I’m sorry.”_

_Looking up at him, Kara sighed. “You said that already.”_

_He nodded. “I did. And I’ll keep saying it until you forgive me.”_

_She shook her head. “Of course, I forgive you, Steve. I know you didn’t mean it. It just hurt. And the fact that you said that in front of all of our friends…”_

_“I’m an idiot.”_

_“No, you’re not.” She told him and moved over so he could sit beside her. “But I’m not your subordinate or one of your soldiers. I don’t take orders. I’m your fiancé. We’re supposed to be a team.”_

_“I know.” He told her and let her curl into his side. “I’m sorry.”_

_This time she chuckled. “If you don’t stop saying that, I’m going to throw you off this balcony.”_

_“Okay, okay!” He smirked and raised his hands in surrender. “So, Ultron.”_

_She nodded. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.”_

_“So you were part of it?” After seeing the look she sent him, he corrected himself. “I know you didn’t have anything to do with what happened tonight or what Tony and Bruce have been doing with the scepter.”_

_Looking out over the city lights, Kara melted into his touch. “Yes, I was part of the initial conversations. Bruce, Tony, and I have been trying to develop a way to create an even larger security level for the world._

_“Tony’s right, Steve, about what happened in New York. I mean, Loki isn’t the only one who’s come here.” She paused. “Think about it. Me, Thor, Loki, even the Dominators.”_

_“The Dominators attacked a different Earth.”_

_“But what if it hadn’t been?” She turned to face him. “This world has already seen enough beings from outer space. Thor and I came peacefully, for the most part. The others, we were able to stop. What happens if someone comes and we can’t stop them?_

_“Worlds die all the time, Steve. But I don’t want it to happen to this one. Layna deserves to have a better childhood than I did. So yes, we had discussions about the Ultron Project. It was meant to be a program that could detect anything coming our way._

_“This…this was something horrible. And if Tony says they weren’t even close to an interface, I believe him.”_

_“Kara…”_

_“This isn’t about him being my brother.” She promised him. “This is because I know him. He doesn’t flaunt his failures, Steve. Even if he had been close and this happened, he wouldn’t have tried to lie in order to save face. He flaunts his decisions; we both know this.”_

_“You’re right.” He said honestly. “I didn’t think about it like that.”_

_“Everyone is so quick to throw him under a bus, but does anybody actually sit back and think about what he does for us? Yes, he’s an idiot, and sometimes he’s not the best when it comes to making smart decisions. But if you stop and take a second to look at what he’s done, you will see he just wants to protect everyone. He’s as starved for familial love as the rest of us._

_“We didn’t have the best examples growing up. We handle it in different ways, but if everyone keeps coming after him instead of understanding that this is all a front, I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.”_

_Steve kissed her, feeling the tension leave her temples. “I’m sorry. I will try and do better. Your brother riles me up sometimes, but you’re right. I don’t stop to think about what he’s been through or how he handles these situations._

_“Is he okay?”_

_Biting her lip, Kara peered through the floor to see Tony pacing in his room. “He’s mortified. They both are. They hate that anything they built could be used like this, especially when we don’t fully understand it. That Maximoff girl showed him some horrible images. I finally got him to tell me.”_

_“What were they?” He asked her, seeing the pain in her eyes._

_“We all died.” She told him and saw his brows shoot into his hairline. “Everyone else was already gone, but he got to us right as it happened. Spoke to you on your last breath and held me for mine.”_

_“Jesus, that’s intense.”_

_“That’s his worst fear, you know?” She nodded when he looked surprised again. “He’s scared to death of losing his family again and not having done anything to stop it. Now, even though he won’t admit it, he thinks he may have caused it, and it’s killing him.”_

_“I promise we will figure this out.” Steve’s voice was intense. “We will not let Ultron win.”_

_“Can we go to bed now?” Kara asked, tears filling her eyes again._

_She wasn’t overly emotional, but exhaustion was taking the void of the adrenaline she’d had, and it was making her lose control._

_Gently helping her stand, Steve put his arm around her and guided her into their bedroom. “Anything you want.”_

Observing them, Kara saw the former soldier hand his tablet to Thor.

“What’s this?” Tony asked, walking closer to look over the god’s shoulder only to have him smack him in the chest with it.

“A message,” Steve informed them. “Ultron killed Strucker.”

“And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us,” Tony stated, looking at the image.

“This is a smokescreen,” Natasha spoke up. “Why send a message when you’ve just given a speech?”

“Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss,” Steve told her, thinking aloud.

“Yeah, I bet he…” Nat started then stopped when the computer beeped. “Yeah. Everything we had on Strucker’s been erased.”

“Not everything.” Kara finally spoke.

* * *

Once again sitting on a desk, Kara started speed reading through the files that had been placed in front of her.

“Known associates. Baron Strucker had a lot of friends.” Tony told them, looking at his own paperwork.

Bruce scoffed. “Well, these people are all horrible.”

“Wait.” Tony interrupted him, pointing to the file Bruce held. “I know that guy from back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms.” At everyone’s look, he glared. “There are conventions, alright? You meet people. I didn’t sell him anything.”

Jumping down from her desk, Kara wandered over and looked at the file Steve now held. “Oh, yeah. I recognize him. Weird guy.”

Tony nodded. “He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab.”

Holding up a picture, Thor looked at Kara. “This?”

“It’s a tattoo,” Tony told him. “I don’t think he had it.”

“No, those are tattoos,” Kara told him before pointing at something else. “This is a brand.”

Walking over to the computer, Bruce scanned and uploaded the picture. Letting the program do its work, the group waited for it to find where the brand may have originated. When it finally came up, Bruce nodded.

“Oh, yeah. It’s a word in an African dialect meaning ‘thief.’” He told them. “In a much less friendly way.”

“What dialect?” Steve asked him.

“Wakanada,” Bruce said, then furrowed his brow and looked back at the computer. “Wa-wak-wa-Wakanda.”

Instantly, Kara looked up at Steve and Tony. “Wakanda?”

“If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods…” Tony started, but Steve interrupted him.

“I thought your father said he got the last of it.”

“He did,” Kara assured him and shrugged.

“I don’t follow.” Bruce got up and approached them. “What comes out of Wakanda?”

The trio looked at Steve’s shield. “The strongest metal on Earth.”

“So it’s him then?” Everyone turned to look at Clint. “He’s going after this guy to get Vibranium for what?”

“My guess?” Kara sighed. “A body.”

“But what-”

“Mama!”

As her voice bounced off the walls of the room, Layna pulled the door open and threw herself into Steve’s arms as Happy filed in behind her. He slid his arms around her back and held her tightly to his chest, feeling her shaking. “You okay, honey?”

“What happened?” Layna’s eyes were wide as she lifted her chin to look up at him. “I heard someone attacked here last night during the news this morning. Jenna’s dad had it on during breakfast.”

“We’re okay, Layna,” Kara told her pre-teen daughter. “I promise, no one is seriously hurt.”

“But…”

Knowing she was worried, Kara pulled her away from Steve and kissed her forehead. “Listen, the tower isn’t exactly safe right now. So you can’t stay here. Would you rather stay with a friend or fly and stay with Uncle Sam or Auntie Kit?”

“I…” She paused. “Uncle Sam. But, Mama…”

Sighing, Kara led her out of the room as she shared a look with Steve. Once they were out of earshot, Steve turned on Happy.

“Why the hell did you bring her back here?”

Happy looked frazzled. “I took her to school like you told me to, but she wouldn’t go inside. She started screaming her head off, and people started looking at us like I was trying to kidnap her.”

“Sorry,” Steve rubbed his eyes. “I’m just worried about her. You’ll make sure she gets safely to D.C.?”

He nodded. “You know, I will.”

“Okay then,” Steve looked at everyone else. “Let’s go to work.”


	12. Wanda's Mind Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m sorry.” She whispered painfully.
> 
> “Sorry isn’t enough, Kara,”

“Kara, what’s it look like on this inside?”

From her position in the rafters of the boat, Kara sighed. “We were right. Ultron’s here, and he’s not alone.”

“He found Klaue,” Steve responded.

“The twins are here too.” She told them as she prepared for them to get into place.

Then she turned back in on the main conversation.

“Upon this rock, I will build my church,” Ultron said to himself. “Vibranium.”

He tossed the canister to Pietro and faced Klaue again.

“You know, it came at great personal cost.” The smuggler told him. “It’s worth billions.”

Ultron chuckled before looking back at him. “Now, so are you.”

Klaue’s henchman looked down at his phone as it chirped and then showed it to his boss in shock.

Ultron ignored them. “It’s all under your dummy holdings? Finance is so weird. But I always say, keep your friends rich and your enemies rich and wait to find out which is which.”

Klaue’s body language changed instantly. “Stark.”

“What?” Ultron was confused.

“Tony Stark used to say that,” Klaue said carefully. “To me. You’re one of his.”

“What? I’m not…” Ultron grabbed his wrist tightly. “I’m not. You think I’m one of Stark’s puppets? His hollow men? I mean, look at me. Do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!”

Throwing his arm down, it cut clean through Klaue’s arm. Wincing, Ultron moved away.

“I’m sorry. I’m…oh! I’m sure that’s gonna be okay. I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t understand. Don’t compare me with Stark!” He kicked Klaue down the stairs. “It’s a thing with me. Stark is…he’s a sickness!”

“Ah, Junior. You’re gonna break your old man’s heart.”

Turning, Ultron came face to face with four of the seven Avengers. Tony stood in front with Steve and Thor flanking his sides. Kara hovered slightly above them.

“If I have to,” Ultron responded as the twins walked up.

“Nobody has to break anything,” Thor told him.

“Clearly, you’ve never made an omelet,” Ultron told the God.

Tony turned to look at him. “He beat me by one second.”

“Real mature, Tony.” Kara rolled her eyes.

“Well, if it isn’t the alien Stark again.” Ultron addressed her.

“Ah, yes. He’s funny.” Pietro spoke. “Mr. Stark. Miss Stark. It’s what? Comfortable? Like old times?” He gestured to all the weapons.

“This was never our life,” Kara told him.

“You two can still walk away from this.” Steve cut in.

Wanda nodded. “Oh, we will.”

“I know you’ve suffered…”

“Ah, Captain America.” Ultron chuckled. “God’s righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war. I can’t physically throw up in my mouth, but…”

“If you believe in peace, then let us keep it,” Thor told him.

“I think you’re confusing ‘peace’ with ‘quiet.’”

“Uh-huh,” Tony stared at him. “What’s the Vibranium for?”

“I’m glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan,” Ultron told them before sending a magnetic force from his hand that pulled Tony closer to him, then sent him flying back into the wall.

As Tony and Ultron flew at each other, Kara dropped and blocked a blast from hitting Thor and Steve. Behind her, former Iron Legion robots approached and started to attack. As she fought, her body was shoved aside, and she turned in time to see a streak where Pietro had been. Narrowing her eyes, she shot at her foe while Wanda threw Steve through the air.

Hearing a loud crash, she smirked in revenge as Pietro fell into a pile of cargo boxes, Mjolnir’s handle in his fist. “Serve’s you right.”

Then Steve was there, knocking him down. “Stay down, kid.”

Landing on the ground near them, Kara fought the bots while her fiancé spoke to their teammates. “Thor, status.”

“The girl tried to warp my mind.” He told them as Kara shot into the air and used her heat vision to take out an oncoming group of Klaue’s men. “Take special care. I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty.”

She heard him trail off and was about to speak when Pietro ran at Steve and knocked him into the stairs. She watched as he nodded, and his sister used her magic on his mind.

“Steve!”

“Go!” He yelled at her. “I’m alright. Just stop them.”

Pietro looked up at her, smirked, and ran. She shot after him, following him into one of the hallways. Then he stopped, and she lowered herself to the ground. “You need to stop this.”

“Just like a Stark, to think everyone else is bad and they are the hero.” He told her.

“We’re aren’t the bad guys, and neither are you.” She tried. “Ultron has used your anguish against you. Please do not let it cloud your judgment.”

She saw him smile and spun around in time to see Wanda wave her hand. Then everything went red, and Kara stumbled before collapsing to her knees.

Everything was dark.

Furrowing her brow, she looked around at the launch bay in confusion. It had been nearly two decades since she’d been there in person, but she remembered it perfectly in her nightmares. Outside, the ash-ridden sky exploded in colors of orange and red. The noise was louder than anything she’d ever heard.

“Kara.”

Turning, her heart skipped a beat as she stared at her mother. “Mom.”

Alura smiled sadly. “You’ve grown up, my daughter.”

“It’s been so long.” She paused. “Am I dead?”

The brunette shook her head. “No, darling.”

“Then…then how am I here?” She asked. “ _Why_ am I here?”

Walking forward, Alura placed her hands on her daughter’s face. “You failed us, Kara.”

“Wh…what?” Her voice broke.

Alura nodded sadly. “You failed everyone.”

“No, I tried! I became Supergirl, and I have protected my daughter and Tony, even Steve…”

“You failed Kal-El,” Alura told her. “You let Tony create a murderous robot that is going to take over the world. You should have stopped him.”

Kara shook her head. “No, Ultron was never meant for this.”

“You failed to keep your brother from being kidnapped, you let aliens attack Earth, and you endangered your daughter by coming out as a superhero. You have failed us, Kara.”

“No…no, I didn’t.” Her lip wobbled, and she tried to hold back her tears. “I’ve tried to do the best I can. I became a hero! I’ve saved hundreds of lives. All I’ve ever tried to do was make you proud.”

“I’m sorry, Kara. We just haven’t seen that.”

“We?” Kara watched as Alura looked up and over her shoulder.

Turning, the blonde’s breath caught in her throat and she choked back a sob. “Mom? Dad?”

Howard and Maria stood side by side, staring at their adopted daughter. They looked like they had the last she had seen them, just before they left for their vacation and never came home. Always looking to get a word in, much like his son, Howard stepped forward.

“Kara.”

“Dad.” She pulled away from Alura and started to walk forward, only to stop when his hand lifted to block her. “But…”

“You failed us, Kara.” His stern voice boomed out. “You allowed your brother to run rampant and give our company away! I brought you into this family to help us, and all you’ve done is make it unrecognizable.

“I should never have brought you home.”

“Please don’t say that.” Her emotion fell into her words now, and her stomach clenched painfully.

“You don’t deserve to call yourself a Stark.” He told her. “How can you even look your daughter in the eye with everything you’ve destroyed?”

Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she didn’t feel them. Everyone she’d ever tried to honor was telling her that she failed them. This was worse than any nightmare she’d ever had.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered painfully.

“Sorry isn’t enough, Kara,” Alura told her.

“I can’t-”

“Kara.”

“Please, just let me-”

_“Kara!”_

Blinking, her eyes landed on a pair of familiar blue ones, and she finally realized that she was sitting against the wall of the boat. Steve crouched in front of her, looking at her in worry and pain. Hauling her up, he settled his arm around her and walked her off the boat. As they moved, she heard Clint and Tony talking in her ear.

“Natasha, I could really use a lullaby.”

“That’s not gonna happen. The whole team is down. You’ve got no backup here.”

Her alien ears picked up the sound of the Hulk roaring somewhere in the distance, and though the protective sibling in her wanted to go and help them both, she stayed nearly comatose against Steve’s side.


	13. Leave It All Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Observing the team, his eyes narrowed in on the blue and red blob at the rear of the plane and moved in that direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. I am so sorry for the delay in posting. Long story short--between the holiday, a carpal tunnel flare-up, signing up for school, and being sick--one of our very close-knit fire department family died suddenly on New Year's Day. It's been something that has shocked us and left us with a sense of real sadness and upheaval. We've been lucky enough to never have lost someone that was an active-duty firefighter so we have no protocol and no experience with it. I ask for patience as we try to figure out how to handle this.
> 
> Rest in Peace JVP.
> 
> (Side note: I absolutely love this chapter.)

Back on the Quinjet, Kara sat on the floor away from everyone else. It seemed that everyone needed time to process whatever it was they saw while under Wanda’s spell, and the only ones holding it together were Clint and Tony.

She looked up as Steve walked past her, sending him a small smile and moving over a bit so he could take the spot next to her. Instead, he looked down at her sadly before walking away to a place across the jet. Feeling her heart fall to her stomach, she wondered if the things said in her vision were part of a trick or if they were the real thoughts of those around her.

At the front of the plane, Clint and Tony spoke to Maria back at HQ.

 _“The news is loving you guys.”_ She told them. _“Nobody else is. There’s been no official call for Banner’s arrest, but it’s in the air.”_

Tony sighed. “The Stark Relief Foundation?”

 _“Already on the scene.”_ She assured him. _“How’s the team?”_

“Everyone’s…” He paused. “We took a hit. We’ll shake it off.”

_“Well, for now, I’d stay in stealth mode and stay away from here.”_

“So, run and hide?”

She sighed. _“Until we can find Ultron, I don’t have a lot else to offer.”_

Looking at his team, Tony shook his head. “Neither do we.”

Turning off Maria's image, Tony stood and went to Clint, who was piloting the plane. “Hey, you wanna switch out?”

The archer didn’t turn around. “No, I’m good. If you wanna get some kip, now’s a good time because we’re still a few hours out.”

Tony was confused. “A few hours from…where?”

Clint smirked. “A safe house.”

Blinking in surprise, Tony backed away. Observing the team, his eyes narrowed in on the blue and red blob at the rear of the plane and moved in that direction. Glancing curiously at Steve, who looked to be deep in thought, Tony squatted in front of his sister.

“Is this seat taken?” It took her a second, but when she finally looked up, her eyes were red with tears. “Oh, Kara.”

He settled himself next to her and threw his arm over her shoulders, pulling her close to his side. They sat in silence for a few moments before he heard her speak.

“I failed.”

She spoke so quietly he almost missed it. “What?”

“I failed.” She said again. “I failed Kal. I failed everyone I’ve ever tried to make proud.”

“Is that what you saw?” He wondered. “Who told you that?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Mom and Dad. My mother.”

At the mention of his parents, Tony’s eyes widened slightly. “Mom and Dad?”

“He told me I’d failed them, that I failed the company and everything he’d built. He said he regretted adopting me.”

“What?” Though he knew, logically, that version of his father was an illusion, he was appalled.

“Maybe…maybe I need to get rid of Kara and just be Supergirl. If Kara didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have any distractions. I wouldn’t have people I was continually putting in danger, and I would be the person my mother intended me to be when she sent me here. I was supposed to be a savior, and all I’ve been doing is pretending to be some smart IT girl. I am an alien with life-saving powers, and here I am playing human.

“Maybe Kara Stark needs to go away for good.”

Tony was horrified. He wondered if this was something she questioned often and knew he had to do better in taking care of her. With that thought in mind, he looked down and took in his sister’s ragged appearance.

She looked more depressed than he’d ever seen her, including the first time she walked through the front door of his house with their mother and Jarvis. Her hair hung around her shoulder in a staticky mess, and her eyes had a dead look behind them.

After many of her nightmares, he'd seen her, but she never once looked as lost as she did at that moment. Reaching down, he grabbed her hand in his free one and squeezed with all the strength his tired body could muster until she lifted her eyes to look at him.

“I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to believe it. No conditions, no saying you do but really questioning it. You have to really believe it, or I won’t leave you alone until you do. Understand me?”

She nodded slowly. “What, Tony?”

He leveled her with the sincerest look he’d ever given anyone in his life. “I am so incredibly, indescribably proud of you.”

“Tony…”

“Ah, ah. I’m speaking now. Everyone else evidently got a turn, so now it’s mine.” He told her. “You have no idea how much better my life is with you in it. You have not failed anything. That witch messed with your mind.

“I don’t know if this is something you’ve been worried about since you were adopted, but I’m going to work every day to make you realize how valued you are in my life and everyone’s life.

“Kara, there was nothing you could do to save your cousin. I wish you’d told me the story sooner, but you have to know that everything that happened was out of your control. If she were alive, your mother would tell you the same exact thing, and you know it.

“As far as the company is concerned, you didn’t destroy anything. We adapted. Together. I was the one who decided to change our biggest selling items, and we agreed it was for the best. You know that it was the right thing to do. Don’t let your fears tell you differently.”

He watched as she took in his words and followed a stray tear as it fell from the corner of her eye. Wiping it away, he sighed. “We also have to talk about this ridiculous ‘getting rid of Kara’ idea you have going on in your head.

“Sure, Supergirl is great, and the world loves to see you flying around, saving the day in the cape and everything. But that’s just a bonus for everyone who knows you. The real blessing is _you_ , Kara. Without Kara, there would be no Layna. None of us would have our spunky little girl to light up our lives if you’d never been Kara. Steve wouldn’t have become somewhat tolerable if it wasn’t for Kara.”

He watched as the corner of her lip flickered into a barely noticeable smile before it was gone again.

“Besides, and almost most importantly, Kara Stark is my favorite person. She saved me more times than Supergirl ever could. I would have no family and no hope if it weren’t for her. So, please, think about that while you’re trying to get rid of her.”

Biting her lip, Kara laid her head on his shoulder. Lowering his so that it rested on her hair, they sat in comfortable silence together. They hadn’t had much brother-sister alone time since the group had come together, and though Tony felt terrible about the circumstances surrounding it, he was glad to have this moment.

He was so content in it, he almost missed when she spoke.

“Hey, Tony?”

He glanced down at her. “What’s up?”

“Can you do me a favor?” Her voice was still quiet and sad.

“Sure.”

“Don’t give up on me?”

“Never.” He pulled her closer. “Now sleep. I promise you’ll be okay. I’ve got you.”

She smiled at him hopefully and resumed her spot on his shoulder. Looking around at everyone again, he nodded at Thor, who watched her in worry, before he glanced at Steve. The soldier met his eyes but still looked lost. He wondered what the man had seen in his vision to make him distance himself from Kara. Sending him a look that told him he had her, Tony shifted and got himself comfortable.

Then together, he and Kara closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep.


	14. The Safehouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were shocked to find themselves landing in the middle of a field just outside a small farmhouse.

Kara’s eyes fluttered open as she felt the jet start to descend. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she realized Tony was still next to her and nudged him until he was also awake. When they stood, they were shocked to find themselves landing in the middle of a field just outside a small farmhouse.

As the group exited the jet, Kara fell into step alongside Steve. They walked in silence, as did everyone, but she looked down when she felt him squeeze her hand. He dropped it as soon as he did, but the sentiment was there.

Walking up the front steps, Thor turned to Tony. “What is this place?”

Tony shrugged. “Safehouse.”

“Let’s hope,” Clint replied and opened the front door.

When Kara crossed the threshold, the first thought that popped into her head was that the house looked lived in. It didn’t feel like a traditional safe house, and Clint’s next words showed she was right.

“Honey? I’m home.”

Kara looked up at Steve in confusion until a heavily pregnant woman stepped into the room and paused in shock. Clint winced but smiled as he looked at her. “Hi. Company. Sorry I didn’t call ahead.”

The woman smiled back and walked to him as quickly as her body allowed. “Hey.”

Then they kissed.

“This is an agent of some kind,” Tony said, voicing the confusion of the whole group.

Turning to them, Clint sighed. “Gentlemen, Kara, this is Laura.”

She waved. “I know all of your names.”

She chuckled, Tony waved, and the sound of fast-approaching tiny footsteps was heard.

“Ooh. Incoming.”

Kara turned and put a hand to her chest as a little girl, and an older boy rounded the corner and flung themselves in Clint’s arms. His kids, she realized, and her heart ached for Layna. By the look on everyone else’s faces, they were just confused.

“Hey, buddy!” Clint sounded happy. “How are you guys doing? Look at your face!”

“These are…smaller agents,” Tony said, less confidently than before.

“Oh, my goodness.” Clint was still fawning over his children.

Then the small girl smiled. “Did you bring Auntie Nat?”

The group turned to Natasha and watched as the redhead smiled at her the same way she did with Layna. “Why don’t you hug her and find out?”

With a small smile that showed he was touched by Natasha’s love for her niece, as well as how much he missed Layna, Steve addressed Laura. “Sorry for barging in on you.”

“Yeah, we would have called ahead,” Tony agreed. “but we were busy having no idea that you existed.”

“Tony!” Kara smacked him. “Be nice.”

Clint shrugged. “Yeah, well, Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD’s files. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Of course,” Kara assured him when no one spoke.

“I figure it’s a good place to lay low.” He sent her a look of gratitude.

Kara heard something crunch behind her and watched as Thor hurried to leave. As Steve ran after him, she moved to stand by Nat and Laura.

“Honey.” Laura hugged Nat.

“I missed you.” The assassin told her friend. “How’s little Natasha, huh?”

Laura winced. “She’s...Nathaniel.”

Nat frowned and leaned down to talk to the unborn child. “Traitor.”

Kara snorted. “Oh, come on. You can’t blame the baby! It doesn’t know yet how cool his Auntie Nat is.”

Laura turned and hugged the blonde as well. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Clint has told me all about you guys.”

“Oh, he has?” Kara smirked. “Has he told you of his adventures in the vents with my daughter?”

The brunette shook her head in amusement. “No, but I believe it. He speaks fondly of her.”

“Well, she’s just as fond of him, though she’d love to kick his butt in video games one of these days. She’s very determined to make it happen.”

All three women rolled their eyes with a laugh. Looking past Laura and Nat as they spoke again, Kara saw Steve freeze in the middle of the doorway. She watched him for a moment before he turned around and left the porch, walking away from the house.

Swallowing her emotions, she put a smile on her face and turned back to the conversation she was having.

…

Not long after the group arrived, Kara went in search of her fiancé. She’d changed into civilian clothes from the ship, a brown checkered top with ruffles and a pair of jeans, before setting off to find where her soldier had gone.

Turning the corner to the side of the house, she found him standing next to a large woodpile with an axe in his hand. She watched quietly as he chopped pieces and knew he felt conflicted about invading the family’s privacy.

“Hi.”

He looked up as she walked over with her arms tucked over her chest as if to block any negative feelings from reaching her. Setting the axe down, he faced her and sighed.

“Are you okay?”

“Not really.” She shrugged. “The witch got me good.”

“What did you see?”

She gave him a look. “My parents. Three of the four, at least.”

He frowned. “What happened?”

She looked down and kicked a rock. “Told me I was a failure and that all I’d ever done was fail them.”

He looked sad. “Kara…”

She waved him off. “Tony helped me out with that one.”

“I should have done that.” He admitted with a pinch of guilt in his voice. “That witch…”

“She showed you Aunt Peggy.” It wasn’t a question. “Where were you?”

He looked surprised, and the guilt showed even more. “We were at the Stork Club. I’d promised to take her there just before I crashed the plane.”

Kara nodded awkwardly. “You regret it, not being able to give that to her.”

“Of course, I do.” He told her, frustration seeping into his tone.

“All I meant was…I’m sorry that you lost all that time.” She looked down again. “I know how it feels, obviously, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Just remember, we have so much now that we wouldn’t have had if the bad things never happened.”

“Seriously?” She whipped her head up at his harsh tone. “You’re telling me to just be glad that it happened?”

Her jaw dropped. “No! I’m telling you that I know what it feels like to lose everything you’ve ever known and end up somewhere scary and confusing. But we do have to accept it because there is no going back, unfortunately. And to be quick honest, with everything I have now—you and Layna and Tony—I don’t know if I’d want to….I thought you’d feel the same.”

“Are you seriously asking me to choose which life I’d rather live?” He asked her, his voice rising. “You want me to forget everything from my old life in the blink of an eye?”

“No!” She rolled her eyes. “That’s the opposite of what I want! I don’t want to forget Krypton, either. I just want to know that you’re not regretting this…us.”

“Don’t do this here, Kara,” He asked of her. “We barged in on these people. The least we can do is be civil and save the fight for when we get home.”

“I am being perfectly fucking civil.” She told him as her voice darkened. “I just don’t want to lose you, and with everything that’s happened, I feel like you’re slipping away from me.”

“Kara…” He said, softer than before, but was interrupted by Tony walking up.

“What’s going on with you two?”

Steve shook his head and looked at the trees.

Kara sighed and rubbed her brother’s arm for a second. “I’m going to see if Laura needs any help with dinner.”

Walking away from them, Kara closed her eyes and willed the tears to stay inside. This wasn’t the first fight between them, all couples fight, but it hurt to wonder if he regretted being with her.

…

Upstairs a little while later, Laura inspected Clint’s non-existent wound.

“See?” He sighed as she felt the spot where Helen had given him artificial skin. “You worried for nothing. Can’t even feel the difference, can you?”

She shook her head. “If they’re sleeping here, some of them are gonna have to double up.”

Clint chuckled. “Yeah, that’s not gonna sell.”

“Well, obviously, Steve and Kara won’t mind.” Laura paused. “Is everything okay between them?”

“What do you mean?” The archer asked his wife.

“They seemed…distant before. Is something going on there?” She’d taken to Kara immediately upon meeting her and was sad to think that she was hurting.

He glanced toward the doorway to make sure no one was listening. “They’re both stubborn, and it’s complicated.”

“Okay, so what about Nat and Dr. Banner?” Laura tried again. “How long has that been going on?”

Clint looked confused. “Has what?”

This time, she laughed out loud. “You are so cute.”

“Nat and Banner?” Clint felt like his world had been turned upside down.

“I’ll explain when you’re older, Hawkeye.” She teased.

“Well, okay.” He said, throwing on a new shirt.

Then her tone grew somber. “It’s bad, right? Nat seems really shaken. Kara, too.”

Clint sighed. “Ultron has these allies. These, uh, kids. They’re punks, really. But they carry a big damn stick. And both girls took a serious hit. Someone’s gonna have to teach them some manners.”

“That someone being you.” Laura guessed as they moved to sit by the window. “You know I totally support your avenging. I couldn’t be prouder. But I see those guys…those gods…”

“You don’t think they need me.”

She shook her head again. “I think they do, which is a lot scarier. They’re a mess.”

Clint looked outside to see Kara walking away from Steve as Tony approached. They all seemed heated and upset.

“Yeah…” He contemplated her words for a second. “I guess they’re my mess.”

“You need to be sure that this team is really a team and that they have your back. Things are changing for us. In a few months’ time, you and me are gonna be outnumbered. I need…” She trailed off. “Just be sure.”

Turning, he hugged her and their baby. “Yes, ma’am.”

They kissed, then looked back to the men outside.

Laura sighed again, feeling his old wound. “I can feel the difference.”


	15. Battle Strategies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you’d have more than that.”
> 
> “I do. I have you.”

After dinner, everyone gathered around the kitchen to discuss their plan of attack. They could hide there for a while, sure, but Ultron was still out there, and they needed to stop him before it was too late.

Just before dinner, Tony came inside with Fury on his tail, and Kara guessed that Maria sent for him as soon as everything had gone to shit. Though she didn’t know how to feel about everything else, she knew that she was glad to see him.

“Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time.” He told them as he dried the dishes. “My contacts all say he’s building something. The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don’t think it’s just one thing.”

“What about Ultron himself?” Steve asked, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Oh, he’s easy to track. He’s everywhere.” Fury picked up a glass of tea and handed it to Kara, who sat next to him on the counter. “The guy is multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. It still doesn’t help us get an angle on any of his plans, though.”

Throwing a dart at Clint’s dartboard, Tony spoke up. “Still going after launch codes?”

“Yes, he is. But he’s not making any headway.”

Tony was confused. “I cracked the Pentagon’s firewall in high school on a dare.”

Fury nodded. “Well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that.”

“Nexus?” Steve looked up, confusion on his face.

“It’s the world Internet hub in Oslo,” Bruce told him. “Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth.”

“It’s basically my Candy Land,” Kara told him.

He smirked. “Oh, so a nerdy Candy Land then.”

Her jaw dropped, but she was clearly smiling. “So that’s how we’re going to play this? Just remember pal, you proposed to this nerd, so what does that say about you?”

“So, what did they say?” Clint ignored the love-sick couple.

Fury joined him. “He’s fixated on the missiles. But the codes are constantly being changed.”

“By whom?” Tony asked as a dart flew past his face to hit the bullseye.

Clint just smirked and shrugged.

“Parties unknown.” Fury informed them.

Nat sat up straighter. “Do we have an ally?”

“Ultron’s got an enemy. That’s not the same thing.” He told her. “Still, I’d pay folding money to know who it is.”

“I might need to visit Oslo. Find our unknown.” Tony said suddenly and looked at his sister. “Could use your help.”

She nodded. “It is my area of expertise. Besides, I wouldn’t pass up that opportunity.”

Natasha sighed. “Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you’d have more than that.”

“I do. I have you.” He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere. Ears, everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world.

“Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard.”

“Steve doesn’t like that kind of talk.” Kara corrected him.

He rolled his eyes with a smirk. “You know what, Doll?”

“What?” She faked innocence and smiled at him.

Ignoring them, Fury continued. “So, what does he want?”

“To become better,” Steve answered him. “Better than us.”

Kara nodded. “He keeps building bodies.”

“Person bodies.” Tony interrupted, causing her to look at him for a second before her brain caught up to his. “The human form is inefficient. Biologically speaking, we’re outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it.”

Natasha looked up at Bruce, who was staring at a drawling Lila had left on the table. “When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed.”

“They don’t need to be protected,” Bruce muttered, looking up at them. “They need to evolve. Ultron’s going to evolve.”

“How?” Fury asked.

Kara saw the fear on Bruce’s face. “Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?”

“Oh, God.” Steve breathed out, looking at Kara, who nodded. “Everybody suit up.”

Kara jumped from the counter immediately and moved to Laura in the living room. “Thank you for everything. I’m sorry we have to leave like this.”

She nodded. “Of course. You guys are welcome here anytime.”

“The same goes for us.” She told her. “It would be nice to have another woman around, and I’m sure Layna would love some friends her own age around there.”

“That would be nice.” Laura smiled. “Do you need help getting ready?”

This time Kara smiled, and before Laura could blink, Kara was in her suit.

“Wow. That’s…handy.”

The blonde shrugged. “Yeah, sometimes.”

Behind her, she could hear the boys getting ready, and soon enough, Steve was securing the shield to the back of his suit.

“I’ll take Natasha and Clint.” He told Tony.

“Alright. Strictly recon.” He assured the soldier. “I’ll take Kara, and we’ll hit the Nexus. She was right when she said it’s her area of expertise. She understands it better than I do, and it will be faster. We’ll join you as soon as we can.”

“If Ultron’s really building a body…”

Tony looked at him in understanding. “He’ll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us.”

“He’s right.” Kara agreed, walking over to join them. “He’d be even stronger than Thor and I. And that’s saying something.”

“An android designed by a robot.” Tony mused.

Steve shook his head. “You know, I really miss the days where the weirdest thing science ever created was me.”

Kara smirked at him as Fury joined them. “I’ll drop Banner off at the tower. You mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?”

“She’s all yours. Apparently.” Tony teased, then sobered up. “Do us a favor, though, and check in on Layna, would you? Make sure she’s safe with Wilson.”

“Sure thing.”

Tony sighed. “What are you going to do?”

Fury smiled. “I don’t know. Something dramatic, I hope.”

As he walked away, Kara sent her brother a look that had him shaking his head. “I’ll meet you outside.”

She turned to Steve. “Please be careful. We’re not kidding when we say Ultron will be nearly indestructible if he gets that new body. If anything happened to you, I just…”

“Hey,” he kissed her gently. “I’ll be okay. And I’m sorry for earlier.”

She nodded. “Me too. When this is all over, I promise we’ll talk it all out, okay?”

“You’ve got a deal, Supergirl.” He smiled. “Good luck.”

“You, too.” She told him. “Watch your backs out there. We don’t know how far he’s gotten. Call if you need us.”

“Will do.”

She nodded and headed out to meet her brother. They waited for everyone else, then took off into the sky at the same time as the Quinjet. Hopefully, this would all be over soon.


	16. Time Loop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This is the whole reason my parents sent me here. I have to save Earth the way my parents couldn’t save Krypton."

“So, what’s up with you and Cap?”

They’d barely gotten to Oslo before launching into the story of what happened with Ultron. The security team was happy to let them take a look and hoped they could find the hacker as they hadn’t had any luck doing so.

As she typed, Kara sighed. “We’re just…stressed.”

“That seemed like more than stressed when I walked up on you two at the farm.” He said carefully.

She shook her head. “I’m worried he is regretting proposing.”

“What?” Tony was shocked. “Seriously?”

She shrugged. “I know that he saw Aunt Peggy in whatever vision the Maximoff girl showed him. He said he felt regret, and I know he was talking about his promise to her, but I just…can’t help feeling he’s regretting more than that.”

“You think he regrets adopting Layna?” Tony wondered.

She shook her head instantly. “Rao, no. He loves her more than anything in this universe, and I know he always will. That’s something I would never question. She will always be his daughter, no matter what. I wouldn’t have let it happen if I wasn’t sure about that.

“I’m just not sure how he feels about me. I don’t want to believe that he regrets proposing to me, but then I think about the fact that we come from entirely different lives. I’m an alien for Rao’s sake, and he’s a chemically enhanced soldier from the ‘40s. He was desperately in love with Aunt Peggy, and the only thing that stopped it was some ice and seventy years apart.

“I mean, she was his first love, Tony. You don’t just get over that overnight.”

He put his hand on her shoulder. “Well, he’s yours, right?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wasn’t his. And I’m not sure what that means inside his head.”

“I’m sorry, K.” Tony said sincerely.

“Thanks.” She smiled sadly. “It helps, you know, having you in my corner.”

“Always, kid.” He smirked, nudging her aside. “Let me take over for a bit.”

“Tony…”

“You can look over my shoulder. Relax. I’m just giving you a break.”

“Fine.” She moved, and he shook his head.

“A hacker who’s faster than Ultron?” He changed the subject to help improve her mood. “He could be anywhere, and as this is the center of everything, we’re just two people looking for a needle in the world’s biggest haystack.”

“More like a needle in the world’s biggest pile of needles.” Kara agreed.

“How do you find it?” One of the employees asked.

“It’s pretty simple,” Tony told her. “You bring a magnet.”

Then he started to sing. “Oh, I’m decrypting nuclear codes, and you don’t want me to…”

“You’re singing voice is atrocious.” Kara rolled her eyes, then caught something on the screen. “Hang on...do you see that?”

“See what?” He asked until she pointed. “Is that…?”

Kara nodded. “Holy shit.”

* * *

Steve let his heart settle for a second as he took in everything that just happened. Ultron derailed the train they’d been fighting on, and if it hadn’t been for the Maximoffs, there would have been hundreds of casualties. On top of that, the robot hadn’t gotten the cradle or the gem, but he had gotten Natasha.

Sobering up, Steve walked outside to deal with the twins.

“I’m fine,” Pietro told his sister. “I just need to take a minute.”

“I’m very tempted not to give you one,” Steve told him.

Wanda turned to him. “The cradle. Did you get it?”

“Stark will take care of it.” He told her, but she became panicked.

“No, he won’t.” She said quietly.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Stark’s not crazy.”

“He will do anything to make things right,” Wanda told him.

Steve paused, taking in her words, before turning on his comm. “Stark, come in.” There was only silence. “Kara.” Nothing. “Anyone on comms?”

“Ultron can’t tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it.” The girl sighed. “Where do you think he gets that?”

* * *

As Tony walked into the lab, Bruce looked at him. “Anything on Nat?”

He shook his head. “Haven’t heard. But she’s alive, or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it.”

Jumping off the cradle, Clint sighed. “This is sealed tight.”

“We’re gonna need to access the program, break it down from within,” Bruce told them.

“Dammit!”

The guys looked up as Kara walked into the room.

“What’s up, sis?”

“I can’t get ahold of Steve.” She told them. “The fight is done, as we saw on the news, but he’s not responding.”

“I’m sure the old man is fine,” Tony assured her. “He’s probably trying to deal with the cleanup.”

Nodding, she leaned against the desk and sighed. “How are we looking with this thing?”

Thinking quickly, Tony looked at Clint. “Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the Internet? Old-school spy stuff?”

He nodded. “There are some nets I can cast. Yeah, I’ll find her.”

As soon as he was out of the room, Kara turned to her brother. “You sent him away on purpose.”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“I can work on tissue degeneration,” Bruce said, oblivious to what the siblings were saying. “if one of you could fry whatever operational system Cho implanted.”

Glancing at his sister, Tony rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, about that.”

Bruce stopped and looked at him. “No.”

“You have to trust me,” Tony said, causing Kara to roll her eyes.

“Kind of don’t,” Bruce told him.

“Then trust me.”

He turned to face her in shock, allowing Tony to continue. “Our ally, the guy protecting the military’s nuclear codes, I found him.”

He flicked a device in the direction of the open space they had, and JARVIS lit up as Kara lifted herself to sit on the desk. “Excuse me?”

“Okay, Kara found him,” Tony admitted.

_“Hello, Dr. Banner.”_

“Ultron didn’t go after JARVIS because he was angry.” Tony continued. “He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So JARVIS went underground. Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn’t even know he was in there until we pieced him together.”

Bruce scoffed. “So, you want me to help you put JARVIS into this thing?”

“No! Of course not.” Tony winced. “I want to help you put JARVIS in this thing.”

Bruce shook his head adamantly, causing Tony to look at Kara. She shrugged and urged him to continue.

“We’re out of my field, here.” He said honestly. “You know bio-organics better than anyone.”

Bruce turned to look at her. “And how do you feel about this?”

She fidgeted with her glasses as she spoke. “My thing is mainly computers, Bruce. You know that. I’m smart, but Tony’s right…we need your help.

“He’s also right when he says this is what we need. Ultron is stronger than all of us, Supergirl and the Hulk included. If we stand even a slight chance of winning this fight, we need to do this. JARVIS is our best defense, whether any of us want to admit it or not.”

“And you just assume that JARVIS’s operational matrix can beat Ultron’s?” He asked her.

She nodded. “I helped create him, didn’t I? Besides, JARVIS has been beating him from inside without knowing it.”

“This is the opportunity,” Tony told him. “We can create Ultron’s perfect self without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality. We have to.”

 _“I believe it’s worth a go,”_ JARVIS added, causing Kara to smirk at him.

Bruce rubbed his eyes, obviously stressed. “I’m in a loop! I’m caught in a time loop.”

“It’s just a jump to the left…” Kara started to sing, but Tony turned on her.

“Don’t you start that now.” He pointed at her.

“…and then a step to ri-i-i-i-i-ight.”

Rolling his eyes at her singing, he looked at his friend. “Bruce…”

“This is exactly where it all went wrong.” He reminded them.

“I know. I know.” Tony told him. “I know what everyone’s gonna say, but they’re already saying it. We’re mad scientists. We’re monsters, buddy. We’ve gotta own it. Make a stand. It’s not a loop…it’s the end of the line.”

Bruce shook his head and looked at Kara again. “Are you sure about this? You know Steve won’t be happy when he finds out.”

She jumped off the desk and nodded. “Yeah, he’ll be pissed. I thought about that. But then I thought about Layna. Then Krypton. I’ve already seen my world die, Bruce, and I barely survived. I was the only one. If I can prevent that from happening again…I have to try. This is the whole reason my parents sent me here. I have to save Earth the way my parents couldn’t save Krypton.

“I can’t let Layna lose her home like I did. I won’t. It changes you, and you never, ever forget it. I will live with the images and the memories for the rest of my life. That isn’t something I want for her, and if he really sits down to think about it, neither will Steve. Please, Bruce, help me save my little girl.”

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist putting "Time Warp" in here, because every single time I watch the movie and Bruce says his line about a time loop, it jumps into my head.
> 
> Song reference: "The Time Warp" from Rocky Horror Picture Show


	17. A Vision of the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s one of the six Infinity Stones.”
> 
> Tony blinked. “What the hell is an Infini-”
> 
> “They exist?” Everyone looked at Kara.

The trio worked quickly, knowing Steve would be back shortly and would try and stop them. Though she felt bad about going behind his back, Kara would distract him any way she could in order to let the guys finish their project.

She told herself she couldn’t feel bad about putting their daughter first, but there was still guilt for doing something he wasn’t okay with doing.

As she worked on the equations at the computer, she heard Bruce and Tony hurriedly working behind her. Moving tubes and going through manuals, they tried to create a working interface that would allow JARVIS’s consciousness to load into the body Ultron and Helen had created.

If she weren’t so worried about Steve and the end of the world, Kara knew she’d be geeking out over it.

“This framework is not compatible,” Tony told them.

“Yeah, what do you think I’m trying to do over here, order a pizza?” Kara rolled her eyes, then froze. “Uh, guys…”

“The genetic coding tower is at 97%,” Bruce said quickly. “You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes.”

“Guys, we need to start this right now. Shit.” Kara spun in her chair.

“I’m gonna say this once.”

Kara stared at her fiancé as Tony sent him a retort. “How about ‘none-ce’?”

“Shut it down!”

“Nope, not gonna happen,” Tony told him.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Steve told him, but Kara stood and walked to him.

“Babe, we _do_ know. We figured it out this time.”

Glancing at her, he shook his head. “I’ll deal with you later.”

Everyone froze and looked at Kara, who raised her brows. “Oh, you will, now?”

She could see the guilty and regret on his face, but he turned back to the guys.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Bruce asked him, gesturing to Wanda. “She’s not in your head?”

“I know you’re angry,” Wanda told him, stepping closer only to have Kara step between them.

He scoffed. “Oh, we’re way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade.”

“Banner, after everything that’s happened…” Steve tried but was interrupted again by Tony.

“It’s nothing compared to what’s coming!”

“You don’t know what’s in there.” Wanda pleaded with them.

“This isn’t a game!” Steve yelled.

As they argued, Pietro shook his head and then ran around the room. He managed to pull a few of the tubes out of their spots before a body slammed into him, and he fell to the glass floor. Looking up, he saw Kara standing above him.

“Yeah,” she said, addressing the shock on his face. “I’m fast, too.”

Then, before he could speak, a gunshot was heard, and they both looked down to see a bullet flying up between them. Pietro barely had time to look at her before he fell through the shattered floor. When he looked up, Kara was hovering in the air where she’d once stood.

“What?” Clint asked him with a smirk. “You didn’t see that coming?”

Alarms started blaring throughout the room, and Kara flew over and landed in front of her computer.

“I’m rerouting the upload,” Tony told her.

She nodded until she saw Steve start to throw his shield. It was almost to Tony when she was suddenly in front of him, and it bounced off her forehead. Steve winced, and she just gave him a look. Tony sent for a gauntlet on his hand, which he used to blast Steve back. Wanda was about to use her powers when Bruce ran over and wrapped his arms around her.

“Go ahead,” he told her. “piss me off.”

Clint ran up the stairs with his gun as Steve jumped forward to fight Tony. Pietro joined the fight, causing Kara’s attention to land on him as they raced around the room, throwing punches and looking like twin blurs to anyone who cared to look at them.

Then, just as everything was starting to unravel, she saw Thor slide into the room. He jumped onto the cradle and held Mjolnir in the air, gathering lightning around him.

“Wait!” Bruce shouted, and Kara shook her head.

“Thor!”

Ignoring them, he sent the bolts directly into the face of the new body, and Kara watched as the system overloaded with power. Everyone had stopped fighting, and Pietro stood next to her in shock. When it all went quiet, everyone stared at the cradle.

Then it exploded, and the body leapt out. As everyone else either ducked or went flying, Kara watched as he knelt for a second before flying at Thor, who threw him through a window and into the living room. He headed straight for the main picture windows when he suddenly stopped and stared out at the city.

Kara flew out behind him but stopped when he did. Only a few feet away, she could see the conflict on his face as he watched the city light up. She felt everyone gather below her and shook her head at Thor, who stopped the rest from advancing on them.

Flying over to him slowly, she watched him change colors before her eyes. When she was next to him, he turned his head to look at her, his expression showing the feeling of being lost and confused.

“Hello.” She said carefully. “Would you like to land?”

Nodding, he slowly lowered himself to the ground at the same pace she did. Landing next to Thor, Kara saw him put the hammer aside as he looked at her. “Kara?”

She nodded in reassurance. “We’re good.”

“I am sorry,” Vision told them. “That was…odd. Thank you.”

Vision observed Thor and Kara, who donned her Supergirl suit as her clothes had torn during the fight and moved his shoulder so that a cape appeared down his back. Kara smiled lightly, knowing he was trying to fit in.

“Thor,” Steve broke the silence. “you helped create this?”

“I’ve had a vision.” He told them. “A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center is that.”

“What? The gem?” Bruce wondered.

“It’s the Mind Stone,” Thor told them. “It’s one of the six Infinity Stones.”

Tony blinked. “What the hell is an Infini-”

“They exist?” Everyone looked at Kara. “I heard tales of them on Krypton, but we never actually thought they were real. Just folklore…legend.”

Thor nodded. “These stones are the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities.”

“Then why would you bring-”

“Because Stark and Kara are right.” Thor stopped Steve’s argument.

“Oh, it’s definitely the end times.” Bruce teased.

“The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron.” Thor reminded them.

“Not alone.” Vision agreed.

“Why does your Vision sound like JARVIS?” Steve wondered.

“We reconfigured JARVIS’s matrix to create something new,” Tony told him, moving to stand by Kara.

“I think I’ve had my fill of new,” Steve replied.

Vision looked at him. “You think I’m a child of Ultron.”

“You’re not?”

“I’m not Ultron. I am not JARVIS.” Kara put a hand on Tony’s shoulder, and they looked at each other in mourning for their old friend. “I am…I _am_.”

“I looked in your head,” Wanda told him. “and saw annihilation.”

“Look again.” He said gently.

Clint scoffed. “Her seal of approval means jack to me.”

“Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone,” Thor said quickly.

“And if the legends are true, they’re nothing compared to what it can unleash.” Kara finished for him.

He nodded. “But with it on our side…”

“Is it?” Steve asked him before looking at Vision. “Are you? On our side?”

Vision looked down. “I don’t think it’s that simple.”

“Well, it better get real simple real soon,” Clint told him.

“I am on the side of life.” Vision corrected his statement. “Ultron isn’t. He will end it all.”

“What’s he waiting for?” Tony asked him.

“You.”

“Where?” Bruce questioned.

Clint sighed. “Sokovia. He’s got Nat there, too.”

Bruce moved forward, advancing on Vision. “If we’re wrong about you, if you’re the monster that Ultron made you to be…”

“What will you do?” Vision asked him calmly before looking around at everyone’s expectant faces. “I don’t want to kill Ultron. He’s unique, and he’s in pain. But that pain will roll over the Earth. So, he must be destroyed. Every form he’s built, every trace of his presence on the net. We have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others.

“Maybe I am a monster. I don’t think I’d know if I were one. I’m not what you are and not what you intended. So, there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go.”

As he turned to Thor, Kara snorted as everyone else in the room froze. Standing in front of him, Vision held Mjolnir out to its owner, entirely at ease. Thor grabbed it as everyone stared at each other, and Vision walked past them.

“I mean…I trust him.” Kara shrugged, gesturing to the hammer. “You can’t fake that.”

Tapping his hammer, Thor let out an awkward breath. “Right.” Then he patted Tony on the shoulder. “Well done.”

“Three minutes.” Steve turned to them. “Get what you need.”

Then his eyes landed on Kara, and the room cleared out.


	18. Right vs. Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I know an apology won’t do shit to make you feel better, but I do want to offer one.”

“Yeah, we’re being careful, honey. No, Uncle Tony and Uncle Bruce are not in trouble.” Kara paused. “I promise, nothing is happening to them. You know I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Steve paused in the doorway of their bedroom as Kara spoke on the phone. He knew they needed to leave, but he didn’t want to go with the same energy they currently had between them.

He hadn’t meant to say what he did to her, but he had been caught up in the moment, and the words had slipped out. He wished more than anything that he could take them back or make her forget they were ever spoken, but life didn’t work that way. And Kara wasn’t the type of woman to let him off the hook easily.

He was shaken from his thoughts when she turned and gestured him over. Then she held the phone out to him so he could speak to Layna. “Hey, sweetheart.”

Kara turned away from him as he spoke. She was already in her suit, so she didn’t worry about gathering her things as the rest of the team was busy doing at that moment. All she could think about was how she and Steve had seemed to be on two completely different paths recently and how it put a sick feeling in her stomach.

She didn’t want to be at odds with him, but it seemed as though she didn’t always get her wish.

“Don’t worry; we’ll be fine. I love you, too.”

The Kryptonian turned back to her fiancé and saw him drop her phone on the bed. Then they stared at each other for a few long seconds. Kara knew she probably looked exhausted, which should have been impossible with her alien genes, but she did not care as it had been a long few days.

“Kara…”

“Please, just…don’t.”

Steve watched as she stuck her comm in her ear and sighed. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

She looked up at him with hurt in her eyes. “No, you shouldn’t have.”

“Listen, this is just…it’s a bad day.” He tried to tell her, but she shook her head.

“We’ve been having a lot of bad days lately.” She reminded him. “I was going to tell you, you know.”

“What?” He watched her face, confused until he realized what she meant.

“I obviously didn’t want to act without everyone’s okay…without being able to explain what we were doing. But I couldn’t get ahold of you. I tried for like twenty minutes nonstop. I think maybe your comm got busted during your fight.”

“Why didn’t you wait for me to come home then?” He wondered, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Kara sighed, leaning against the wall. “Do you realize how long it took us to set everything up and get to the percentage of power we were at? Something like that doesn’t just happen in the blink of an eye. I might have superspeed, but my systems don’t.

“Also…I did it for Layna. I don’t want to talk about this right now, but you and I both know what it feels like to lose everything and everyone you know and love. Do you really want there to be any possible way of that happening to our daughter, too?

“I couldn’t reach you—no one could—and we needed to act. So, I made a decision. I can’t be sorry about something that I did for Layna, but I can be sorry for having to do it without consulting your first.”

He didn’t say anything, causing Kara to bite her lip. She moved to leave the room but stopped when he grabbed her hand as she walked past him. Looking down at him, she saw that he was torn.

“You’re right.” He told her. “I didn’t think about that. All I could picture was being left out again on something that has the potential to end the world. But I should have known that if you were involved this time, it would be different.”

“We need to get back on the same page.” She said quietly as their three-minute break was coming to a close.

“Yeah, we do.” He agreed with her. “I don’t like how separate we’ve been lately.”

She nodded. “How about we go kick some Ultron ass first? Maybe save our daughter’s life in the process.”

His eyes grew dark, and his posture tensed. “Now that we can agree on without discussing. Nothing is happening to Layna.”

Forcing herself to feel steady in the love he had for their girl, she followed him out of their room and went downstairs to find their team.

* * *

“No way we all get through this,” Tony told Bruce as they waited for the others. “If even one tin soldier is left standing, we’ve lost. There’s gonna be blood on the floor.”

“I got no plans tomorrow night.” Steve teased, causing the men to turn and face their resident engaged couple.

“Uh, yes, you do. It involves both of us and our daughter reuniting.” Kara shoved him lightly.

Ignoring them, Tony continued. “I get first crack at the big guy. Iron Man’s the one he’s waiting for.”

“Okay, wow, excuse you.” She looked over at her brother as Steve rested against the jet. “He is just as angry at Supergirl as he is Iron Man.”

“No, he hates me for creating him,” Tony argued.

Before Kara could speak, Vision walked past them. “That’s true. He hates you the most.”

Not being able to help herself, Kara let out a laugh before wincing at the expression on her brother’s face. “Sorry…”

As everyone else wandered over, Steve stood and walked onto the jet, followed by the rest of the team. Before the Maximoffs could enter, however, Kara stopped them.

“Listen, I wanted to…” She trailed off with a sigh. “I know an apology won’t do shit to make you feel better, but I do want to offer one.”

Eyeing her for a second, Wanda nodded. “Thank you. You can’t know what it is like to lose everything and have to live with that.”

“You’d be surprised…” The blonde shrugged. “I lost everything when I was a kid, too. My parents, my family, my whole world. It just blew up, and I had to deal with that. So, I do understand, which is why I know that no apology can take that away.

“Also…sorry about before.” She faced Pietro. “I didn’t mean to tackle you. Well, I did, but sometimes I forget that while some people also have abilities, they aren’t all alien.”

“Wait…you’re an alien?” The siblings both looked shocked. “I thought you were a Stark.”

Kara chuckled. “I’m both. For better or worse.”

Then she turned and led them onto the jet. Once they were settled and in the air, Steve looked around at them.

“Ultron knows we’re coming. Odds are we’ll be riding into heavy fire. And that’s what we signed up for. The people of Sokovia, they didn’t.”

Kara smiled at the twins as he said that, causing her heart to warm a little more.

“So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace. And that’s not gonna happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done. We find out what Ultron’s been building, we find Romanoff, and we clear the field.

“Keep the fight between us.

“Ultron thinks we’re monsters. That we’re what’s wrong with the world. This isn’t just about beating him. It’s about whether he’s right.”

As Kara looked around at everyone, she knew that they were all feeling the same thing. They wouldn’t call themselves monsters, but only time would tell whether the world would or not. All they could do now was bring down their foe and hope everyone else agreed with them.

If not, they would have to deal with the consequences.


	19. Walk It Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed…walk it off."

Kara flew over the city and took stock of what their job would entail. She could see her team on the ground attempting to help Sokovian civilians evacuate while she and Tony flew around the city trying to find Ultron.

This was going to be a horrible fight no matter how anyone looked at it; she just hoped they could minimize as many casualties as possible.

“Tony,” She said into her comm as she let herself hover in the air. “I got him. He’s in the church. I think he’s waiting for you.”

Using her x-ray vision to looking into the building, she found him waiting in the shadows. She knew Tony needed to handle this, but that didn’t mean he had to do it alone.

As he landed, Ultron’s voice echoed off the brick. “Come to confess your sins?”

“I don’t know. How much time you got?” Her brother retorted and turned to face his creation as it walked up behind him.

“More than you.” He told the scientist.

“Uh…have you been juicing? Little vibranium cocktail?” Ultron had grown since they last saw him and was now entirely made of vibranium. “You’re looking…I don’t wanna say ‘puffy.’”

Ultron tilted his head. “You’re stalling to protect the people.”

“Well, that is the mission.” He reminded the robot. “Did you forget?”

Ultron started pacing as he spoke, and even from the air, Kara could sense that he was waiting for something. “I’ve moved beyond your mission. I’m free.”

Then something filled her ears. “Tony…” She used her x-ray vision again, and her eyes flew open. “Tony!”

As soon as she spoke, a large device broke through the ground. It spun and lit up, latching itself onto the earth around it.

“What,” Ultron taunted. “You think you were the only one stalling?”

 _“There’s the rest of the vibranium.”_ Their new AI, FRIDAY, told them. _“Function, still unclear.”_

“This is how you end, Tony.” Ultron continued. “This is peace in my time.”

“Guys,” Kara said into her comm. “We’ve been set up. We have to-”

The wind was knocked out of her as a smaller robot, much like one of her Iron Legion bots, slammed into her side, sending them into the ground. The impact created a large crater, and both beings slid along the dirt for a moment.

“Son of a bitch.” She said as she gritted her teeth.

Blasting it away with her heat vision, she shot into the air again and made quick work of trying to get people off out of the city and away from the unknown number of assailants.

As she flew away, someone else took Tony’s now-vacant space in the church. “Ultron.”

Looking up, the robot rose into the air to meet them. “My Vision. They really did take everything from me.”

“You set the terms,” Vision told him. “You can change them.”

“Alright,” Ultron told him before charging his equal.

Fortunately, Vision was prepared for this action, locking his fingers into Ultron’s skull. This allowed him to break into the robot’s internal mainframe to keep him from escaping through the internet.

Thankfully for them, it worked. Unfortunately, just as Vision had been prepared for Ultron’s attack on him, Ultron had been prepared for them.

Flying over to his device, he groaned. “You take away my world; I take away yours.”

* * *

Across town, Kara listened through her comm as the team fought the corrupted robot army. She had to use every bit of her power to break them apart and was becoming frustrated as another bot slammed her into the ground.

Heaving herself up from the current hole she’d left behind, she prepared to shoot into the sky again when the ground shook and left her off balance. Hearing screams to her right, she spun to look and saw the ground break apart and shift.

“Are we…?”

_“Flying. Yes.”_

“Shit.”

Rushing over to the edge, Kara grabbed onto the back of two people who were about to topple over the side and yanked them back. Looking down, she saw a woman falling and threw herself over, catching her and flying back up to ‘safety.’

Then she flopped onto her hands.

In the air, Ultron looked down at the city he was raising and sighed as he let his voice project over everyone below. “Do you see the beauty of it? The inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword. And the earth will crack with the weight of your failure.

“Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal.”

As soon as he stopped speaking, the team got back to work fighting the robots. Tony, trying to learn more about what was happening, flew away from the city to see motors popping out from the town's roots.

He’d never seen anything like it before, and he had an alien sister.

 _“The vibranium core’s got a magnetic field,”_ FRIDAY told him. _“That’s what’s keeping the rock together.”_

“If it drops?”

_“Right now, the impact will kill thousands. Once it gets high enough? Global extinction.”_

“Kara?” Now he was up for trying anything. “Think you’re strong enough to push this city back down to where it belongs?”

Gritting her teeth together, Kara growled. “What do you think I’m trying to do? It’s not working!”

Giving up on that idea, Kara shot away and tried to take out as many assailants as she could. Seeing a group approaching the bridge where Steve was stationed, she started to fly down.

Then she got tackled again.

“I swear to…” She sighed as she threw a punch. “Steve, you’ve got incoming!”

He groaned on the other end of the comm. “Incoming already came in.”

Laying on the car he’d been slammed into, Steve gathered his thoughts before hauling himself to his feet. “Stark, you and Kara worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed…walk it off.”

From her place in the sky, Kara looked down on him and started muttering to herself. “Wow, babe, real inspiring.”

Just before she shot off again, she watched him walk away with his arm raised, waving her off with an exasperated look on his face. Laughing, she continued on her journey.


	20. I Really Missed Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Look, the city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guys do me a favor and fill out this poll so I can get a better idea of what I should do while writing this story? It should take less than a minute to complete.
> 
> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XGGPGJY
> 
> Thanks!

Everything had turned into a nightmare; that was the only way Clint could describe it. Kara’s Iron Legion had been taken over by Ultron, as well as most of their tech. Now, the city was flying, and they were most likely dying there.

He fought alongside Wanda as the bots continued to fly at him. Though she was well-trained in her powers, he could see that she was scared and wasn’t sure how much longer she could continue to keep her cool.

The moment came when another batch of robots appeared, and he grabbed her, throwing them both through the window of a building.

Crawling across the floor, Wanda gasped for air. “How could I let this happen?”

“Hey, hey,” Clint could see that she was panicking. “You okay?”

“This is all our fault.” She told him, guilt in her eyes.

He put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, look at me. It’s your fault; it’s everyone’s fault. Who cares?”

She looked up at him, unsure of where he was going with his speech.

“Are you up for this? Are you?” He asked her. “Look, I just need to know because the city is…is flying. Okay. Look, the city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense.

“But I’m going back out there because it’s my job. And I can’t do my job and babysit. It doesn’t matter what you did or what you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you’re good. I’ll send your brother to come find you. But if you step out that door, you are an Avenger.”

He waited a moment but got no answer, so he stood and went back outside. He couldn’t believe that this was his life, and if there was any miracle of him going home, he wasn’t sure Laura would believe it either.

Firing his arrows at the oncoming robots, he realized there were too many of them and that they would soon overpower him. As he crouched behind an abandoned vehicle, he waited for them to get closer so he could go out fighting when the doors opened again, and Wanda emerged.

The young woman sent her powers flying in every direction and gave Clint the chance to recover and embed his weapon into the faces of multiple bots. Once they’d cleared the assailants from that area, they met in the middle and started walking back to the city's central section.

“Alright, we’re all clear here.”

Steve’s strained voice answered him. _“We are_ not _clear! We are very not clear!”_

“Alright, we’re coming to you.”

As he spoke, Pietro ran up next to them and grabbed his sister with a chuckle. “Keep up, old man!”

Then he was gone, leaving Clint alone, raising his arrow in the man’s direction. “Nobody would know. Nobody. ‘The last I saw him, Ultron was sitting on him. Yeah, he’ll be missed, that quick little bastard. I miss him already.’”

“Need a lift?”

Looking above him, Clint saw Kara hovering with an amused smirk on her face. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Hey, he was a good kid. He’ll be missed greatly.” She laughed.

Rolling his eyes at the fact that she heard him, he waited as she flew down and grabbed the back of his suit before shooting into the sky.

* * *

Back on the bridge, Steve and Thor fought side by side. A few feet away, they could see Natasha fighting her own batch of robots, and Hulk’s roar could be heard floating over the people's screams.

They worked together and used their personal weapons to destroy the bots in front of them. Then Thor was airborne, and Steve watched as Ultron flew away with him.

“Guys, Ultron has Thor.”

 _“We’re on it.”_ Kara’s voice entered his ear. _“Dropping Clint there now.”_

* * *

Underneath the flying city, Tony was still trying to analyze how they could get everything back to normal without killing an insane amount of people.

 _“The anti-gravs are rigged to flip,”_ FRIDAY told him quickly.

Tony sighed. “Touch them, they’ll go reverse thrust.”

_“The city’s not coming down slow.”_

“Spire is vibranium. If I get Thor to hit it, it will crack.” Tony couldn’t stop until they won.

 _“That won’t work,”_ FRIDAY said earnestly. _“The impact would still be devastating.”_

“Maybe if we can cap the other end.” He muttered, flying around to look at one of the thrusters up close. “Keep the atomic action doubling back.”

 _“That could vaporize the city.”_ The AI informed him. _“And everyone on it.”_

* * *

Kara sped over the city on her way to help her brother. They had a very short amount of time to come up with a solution, and though she wanted to stay on the streets and fight, she knew her brain was needed if they were to accomplish that goal.

As she flew up to his side, she could see that Tony was becoming discouraged by his lack of movement. “Tony…”

 _“The next wave is gonna hit any minute.”_ Steve’s voice came over their comms. _“What do you got, Stark?”_

“Huh? Nothing great.” He replied with unusual honesty. “Maybe a way to blow up the city. That’ll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear.”

_“I asked for a solution, not an escape plan.”_

Tony shook his head. “Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We’re gonna have to make a choice.”

On the surface, Steve stopped next to Natasha, who sighed. “Cap, these people are going nowhere. If they find a way to blow this rock…”

“Not until everyone’s safe.” He told her, sucking in air after the fight he’d been in.

Nat looked at him painfully. “Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There’s no math there.”

“I’m not leaving this rock with one civilian on it.” He said forcefully.

“I didn’t say we should leave.” When he looked at her in shock, she nodded. “There’s worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?”

_“Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It’s about to get better.”_

Laughing at the relieving sound of Fury’s voice, Kara turned in time to see their old helicarrier shimmer into view.

_“Nice, right? Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She’s dusty, but she’ll do.”_

_“Fury, you son of a bitch.”_

_“Ooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?”_

Smiling at her brother, they watched as lifeboats deployed from the ship and landed on the city’s edge. Then her ears picked up on mechanical noises. “We’ve got incoming.”

_“We have multiple bogies converging on our starboard flank.”_

_“Show ‘em what we got.”_ Fury responded.

Kara’s eyes fired up, and heat vision erupted from them, out two bots. At the same time, three more fell from the sky, causing her to pause in confusion. Then she saw Rhodey.

“Now, this is gonna be a good story.” He told them.

“Only if you live to tell it.” She told him as all three heroes flew away.

“You think I can’t hold my own?” The darker man teased.

Tony shook his head. “We get through this; I’ll hold your own.”

“Ew…” Kara’s nose scrunched in disgust.

“You _had_ to make it weird.”


	21. Maybe We Don't Make It Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, Kar…” He paused for a second now that he knew she was listening. “if this works, we maybe don’t walk away.”
> 
> There was a beat of silence. “Maybe not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! If you haven't yet, would you take one minute to fill out this survey? It will help me understand your feelings a bit better and when you would prefer me to post. Thanks!
> 
> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XGGPGJY

As the team worked on the ground to get as many people on to the lifeboats as possible, Kara was in the air with Tony and Rhodey trying to keep bots off of them.

“I got it,” Tony told her. “Create a heat seal. I could supercharge the spire from below.”

“Not a bad idea…” She mulled it over in her brain as she grabbed a bot and ripped it in half.

 _“Running numbers.”_ FRIDAY got to work calculating that as they continued to fight. _“A heat seal could work with enough power.”_

“I can give you that extra power,” Kara told him. “We could tag-team it.”

“Wouldn’t mind the help if we’re being honest.” He grunted. “Thor, we’ve got a plan.”

 _“We’re out of time.”_ Their friend informed them. _“They’re coming for the core.”_

Looking at his sister in concern, the billionaire changed his tactic. “Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier. Avengers, it’s time to work for a living.”

He and Kara fell back simultaneously and entered the church at the same moment as their teammates. While Tony landed to fight on the ground, Kara stayed in the air to take care of the bots trying to breach their flank from above.

They finished off the few that were there before regrouping in the center. “Romanoff. You and Banner better not be playing ‘hide the zucchini.’”

 _“Relax, shell-head.”_ Kara laughed at her friend’s insult. _“Not all of us can fly.”_

She arrived a moment later and ran up to join them. “What’s the drill?”

“This is the drill.” Kara pointed at it. “If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose.”

Hulk arrived a moment later, and behind him, Ultron hovered at the same height as Kara and stared at them. Thor moved forward as the rest of them stood in formation around the core.

“Is that the best you can do?”

Kara looked down and groaned. “Really, Thor…?”

Ultron simply opened his arms, and his army swarmed around him.

Steve, tired and sick of everyone’s shit, turned to the Asgardian. “You had to ask.”

“This is the best I can do,” Ultron told them, pulling them out of their conversation. “This is exactly what I wanted. All of you against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?”

“Well, like the old man said…” Tony looked at his soon-to-be brother-in-law. “Together.”

Hulk roared as if on cue, and Ultron’s bots took that as their starting signal. There was a blur of activity in the church as everyone fought their own set of metal soldiers.

Kara held her own in the air, switching between her heat vision and freeze breath to take out whatever came near her or her friends on the ground. There were so many of them she seemed to lose track of time. At one point, she registered Vision and Tony joining her in the air.

Then Ultron joined the fight, and both Thor and Kara watched as Vision used the gem in his head to blast the robot through the roof. Following Vision outside, Kara watched as Vision held his energy blast on him. Then Thor sent lightning his way, and Tony joined in with his blasters. Feeling left out, Kara let the heat fill her eyes and sent that at him as well.

With that much power on him, Ultron started to come apart until finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. As the foursome let their powers lessen, the robot stood. “You know, with the benefit of hindsight-”

Hulk ran through the group and interrupted him by sending him flying through the air with one punch. Then he turned and growled at an army of robots, who scurried off. Hulk ran after them, and Thor turned to everyone else.

“They’ll try to leave the city.”

“We can’t let them.” Tony insisted. “Not even one. Rhodey.”

_“I’m on it.”_

As his voice came through, Vision hurried away to assist the colonel, while Thor and the Starks rejoined their team.

“We gotta move out,” Steve told them. “Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats. I’ll sweep for stragglers. Be right behind you.”

“What about the core?” Clint wondered.

“I’ll protect it.” When the archer looked at her in confusion, Wanda nodded. “It’s my job.”

As the others started to walk away, Pietro ran in, causing Wanda to sigh. “Get everyone to the boats.”

Her twin shook his head. “I’m not going to leave you here.”

“I can handle this.” She told him and, without looking, sent a blast of energy at an oncoming bot behind her. “Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before. You understand?”

Shaking his head, the speedster chuckled. “You know, I’m twelve minutes older than you.”

“Hey, don’t worry so much,” Kara told him as she landed next to the magical girl. “She won’t be alone.”

“Kara, you don’t have to-” Wanda started to protest, but the blonde shook her head.

“Yes, you do. As you just said, it’s my job.” She told them.

Laughing, Wanda looked at her brother. “Go.”

* * *

Underneath the rapidly rising city, Tony surveyed the damage.

_“Boss, power levels are way below…”_

“Reroute everything. We get one shot at this.”

Blasting a hole in the bottom of a thruster, he sighed. “Kara, you still in the church?”

_“You sneaky ass mutherfu-”_

Hearing that she was in the middle of a fight, he winced. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”

_“Sorry.”_

“Hey, Kar…” He paused for a second now that he knew she was listening. “if this works, we maybe don’t walk away.”

There was a beat of silence. _“Maybe not.”_

Back in the church, Kara felt her heart clench painfully. Then came the voice.

_“Wait, what?”_

“Steve…”

_“No, uh-uh. I repeat, that is not an option.”_

“Babe, listen to me.” She begged. “Please.”

 _“Everyone off the comms. I don’t care if you turn to another frequency or turn it off; just go.”_ Then he spoke directly to his fiancée. _“Kara, you don’t have to do this.”_

“Yes, I do.” She turned and saw Wanda fighting off robots at the opposite end of the room. “These things are just going to keep coming. We have a way to stop it, and we need to take it.

“But you can make it out of here, Steve. You need to get on one of those boats and go home to our daughter. She has to have at least one parent that comes home to her. She’s going to need you.”

 _“Stop talking stupid.”_ He demanded, his heart hammering in his chest as he watched Thor run off. _“Now get your ass back to one of these ships.”_

“The plan doesn’t work if I don’t stay. I’m sorry.” She felt tears in her eyes. “I love you so much. I wish we had more time.”

 _“Please, Doll, don’t.”_ Steve didn’t care who saw him crying as he stepped onto the ship.

“Kiss Layna for me, okay? Tell her that I wasn’t afraid. Keep teaching her from the Kryptonian texts about her home and her family.” She blinked away the tears. “Tell her that I will be at home in Rao’s light, waiting for the day where we are all reunited again.”

 _“I love you more than anything in the world.”_ They both knew Layna came first, but neither cared to debate the fact at that moment. _“Oh my God.”_

“What?” She asked quickly. “What happened?”

Turning, she saw Wanda’s body jolt and suddenly had a bad feeling. A moment later, the girl’s knees dropped to the ground, and she let out a blood-curdling scream. Her power erupted around her, and if Kara hadn’t been prepared for it, it would have knocked her down as well.

_“Kara…Pietro’s down.”_

Back in the church, the blonde raced over to her new friend and held her tightly. “I know.”

Pushing away from Kara, Wanda stood. “Where is he?”

“Wanda…” The girl’s distraught eyes looked back at her. “He landed inside a bus about a mile that way.”

She couldn’t blame her for wanting revenge. If it were Tony, she would have done the same and didn’t bother trying to deny it. The least she could do was not let her go alone. She noted that there were no robots near them and her extra vision showed none on their way, so she followed Wanda to their greatest enemy.

“Guys, we’re clear over here.” She said into her comm. “We’re headed to Ultron now.”

Grabbing the red leather jacket in her fist, she gave Wanda a shrug and sped them over to the demolished bus he had fallen inside. Then she stood back and watched the young woman work.

With her hands glowing red, the witch walked over to Ultron and knelt at his side.

“Wanda…” His voice was quiet. “If you stay here, you’ll die.”

Wanda sneered. “I just did. Do you know how it felt?”

Raising her hand over his chest, she let her magic work, and a moment later, what sat in place of his heart ripped through and landed in her palm. Kara watched her silently and knew how badly she was hurting.

“It felt like that.”

Then, before either woman could move, the city fell.


	22. Falling City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She knew that there was no way this whole situation could end well, but she would be okay with that if she had to go out saving the world.

“No!”

Kara’s heart plummeted at the same time as the city, and she grabbed Wanda before flying off at top speed to the helicarrier. The young woman would probably be sick from the speed, but it was better than dying.

She reached the carrier in record time and literally dropped Wanda next to Steve, who looked at her in fear, before flying off again and sinking under the rapidly falling rock. Placing herself next to her brother, she sent him a knowing look as she used all the strength she had to push the city against its intended trajectory.

But fighting gravity wasn’t easy.

The woman struggled to push the city, and though it seemed to slow the descent, she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop it enough to stop the impact. Gritting her teeth so hard she could feel her gums starting to bleed, she began to scream as she put more strength into her job.

“Kara…” Next to her, Tony’s eyes went wide as he watched her. “Thor, on my mark.”

Kara blocked out all noise and surrounding input she was receiving and focused solely on raising Sokovia. She knew that there was no way this whole situation could end well, but she would be okay with that if she had to go out saving the world.

She forced herself not to think about Tony, Steve, and Layna.

In her haste to block out everything, she never heard her brother’s communication with Thor. This resulted in a large chunk of debris smacking her in the chest as her friend’s lightning turned the falling city to pieces, throwing her into the water below them.

Blinking her eyes in exhaustion, Kara felt her body hit the water but made no move to swim out as her body sunk below the boulder on her stomach. She still had her powers, she knew, but the amount of energy she had used had fatigued her enough to mess with her head.

In addition to this, she knew she couldn’t hold her breath forever and gave up trying. As water flowed into her mouth and nose, the alien watched as the flickering light above her grew further and further away before lettering her eyes flutter close.

* * *

“Kara!”

Steve watched from the helicarrier as the city exploded and the red and blue figure that was his fiancée dropped into the water. He paid no attention to the people around him, and he prayed and waited to see her fly out again, but after a minute, he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Throwing his shield to Clint, who had hurried to him, he prepared to jump in and grab her when Thor shot out of the water, his hammer-less arm gripping her.

Both men stepped back to allow him room to land on the helicarrier and watched as he did so. He then laid Kara down gently and shifted back a bit as Steve dropped down next to her.

“Come on, Doll…” The soldier immediately started on chest compressions as Clint checked her for other injuries.

After a few long seconds, her eyes flew open, and she started coughing, letting the water she had swallowed spill from her mouth. “Steve?”

Pulling her close, Steve rocked her in his arms. “Shh…you’re okay.” Then he placed his forehead on hers. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again, do you hear me?”

Chuckling lightly, she simply closed her eyes and sighed as she let him comfort her. It had been a long day—a long week—dealing with Ultron, and she knew that by now, every news station in the world would be showing footage of their destruction.

“Steve,” she choked out. “Layna…”

He nodded. “Don’t worry. Fury contacted Sam and filled him in. She knows we’re okay.”

Feeling the relief wash over her, Kara stood on shaky legs. “Did we do it?”

“Yeah, babe, we did it.” He told her with a sad smile on his face.

She bit her lip. “But Pietro…”

“Gone.” They turned to look at Clint. “He saved my life, and it cost him his own.”

“You can’t blame yourself.” She told him, seeing the look on his face. “He knew it was a risk.”

“You know, for a punk, he really was a good kid.” The archer shrugged. “Would have made a good Avenger.”

“He would have.” Kara agreed and linked her hand with Steve’s.

She watched Thor and Clint walk away and sighed. Looking around to take stock of the people who had made it out alive, Kara focused on the smiles and laughter of families and friends reuniting in safety. Not only did it lift her spirits, but it proved that they had done their best and had done everything they could to protect the world.

She was about to say as much to Steve when her ears picked up on a weird, unfamiliar sound. Pushing her powers to focus on it, she felt a small smile fall onto her lips. It seemed as though more than one thing had gone their way that day, and she couldn’t wait to see where it took them.

All she needed now was a really long nap.

* * *

Ultron crawled what was left of his body out from the crater his destruction had created back on the ground. Before he could get much further than standing up, Vision landed in front of him.

“You’re afraid.” Vision deduced as he stared at the broken robot.

If Ultron could have frowned, he would have. “Of you?”

“Of death.” Vision made no movement, but the words alone hit Ultron hard.

He hated how this creation could read him so well.

“You’re the last one.” Vision continued.

Now Ultron moved forward. “You were supposed to be the last. Stark asked for a savior and settled for a slave.”

“I suppose we are both disappointments.”

Ultron laughed. “I suppose we are.”

“Humans are odd,” Vision told him. “They think order and chaos are somehow opposites and try to control what won’t be. But there is grace in their failings. I think you missed that.”

“They’re doomed.” The robot wasn’t convinced by Vision’s words.

“Yes.” He admitted. “But a thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts. It’s a privilege to be among them.”

“You’re unbearably naïve.”

“Well…I was born yesterday.”

Vision smirked, and as Ultron leapt at him, he shot a beam of light out of the stone in his head, effectively destroying the robot.


	23. Home Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “But if you put the hammer in an elevator…”
> 
> “It would still go up.”
> 
> “Elevator’s not worthy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hammer conversation is literally one of the funniest moments in any Marvel movie for me.

Tony stared out the window of his sports car and thought about the events that had happened to them recently. It had only been one week since their fight against Ultron, but it felt as though so many things had come to pass in that short amount of time.

The biggest of those being the facility he was currently approaching.

Realizing that they needed more space and more extensive staff, Tony and Kara had made the decision to move the team to the new compound earlier than they had planned. The building was mostly ready as it was, they had just been waiting for the minor details to be completed, but with Ultron’s attack, they knew it was time.

Pulling up to the building, Tony rolled his eyes as a flash of red and blue went by his rearview mirror and parked. Stepping out of the vehicle, the scientist shook his head. “Well, someone seems comfortable here already.”

Landing with a thud at his side, Kara smirked. “Hey, I can be happy about this! Look at what we did, Tony! We have so much to be happy about right now.”

He nodded and thought about the other reason they had to celebrate. “How’s the kid doing?”

“Healing nicely.” Kara’s smile brightened. “I just came from the Med Bay. Cho said if I hadn’t picked up on his heartbeat when I did so they could start working on him, he probably wouldn’t have survived after all.”

“Thank God for your super hearing then.” Her brother quipped.

It was true. As she had stood on that helicarrier looking at the people they’d saved, the sound her ears had picked up had been a faint heartbeat. The sound came from Pietro’s chest, and as there had been medical professionals on board, they were able to stabilize him as he waited for surgery at the facility.

Following Tony inside, they went in search of Thor and Steve.

Ever the spy, Natasha was off preparing her new bedroom and training room, wanting everything to be perfect so she could work on her skills as soon as possible. She was also busy trying to locate Bruce on the Quinjet, as Hulk had boarded it on Sokovia and never returned. It was in stealth mode, which made everything more difficult, but Natasha wasn’t going to give up on finding him. Anything was possible with the resources they had, and she vowed to do everything she could to bring him home.

Clint had gone home to his wife soon after they arrived, and it hadn’t been long before they’d heard the news of his son’s birth. Nathaniel Pietro Barton, named after his aunt and the young man that saved his father’s life, was safe and healthy with his family on their farm.

As their friends were scattered attending to their own needs, this left Kara and her boys to figure out the next few steps in the plan.

“The rules have changed,” Steve said as he walked next to Thor and Tony.

Kara followed behind, listening as they spoke.

“We’re dealing with something new.” Tony agreed.

“Oh, the Vision is artificial intelligence.” Steve pointed out.

Tony nodded. “A machine.”

“So, it doesn’t count?”

“No,” Her brother shook his head. “it’s not like a person lifting the hammer.”

“Right, different rules for us.” Steve gestured between himself and Tony.

“Nice guy. Artificial.”

_“Thank you!”_

Thor smirked and glanced back at Kara, who had a smile on her face as well. “He can wield the hammer; he can keep the Mind Stone. It’s safe with the Vision.”

“Vision, guys.” Kara reminded them. “He wants to be called Vision.”

They ignored her.

“And these days,” Thor continued. “safe is in short supply.”

They were silent for a moment before Steve took a breath. “But if you put the hammer in an elevator…”

“It would still go up,” Tony told him.

“Elevator’s not worthy.” Steve shook his head.

Kara looked between them before shaking her head at Thor. “I swear, it’s like they're measuring their dicks or something. My Rao…”

Then she walked past them as Thor patted Tony on the shoulder. “I’m going to miss these little talks of ours.”

“Not if you don’t leave.” He told the god.

“I have no choice,” Thor replied as they followed Kara back outside. “The Mind Stone if the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. It’s not a coincidence.”

“We cannot allow them to fall into anyone else’s hands,” Kara shouted back at them, her voice firm. “That would be horrible on levels that I can’t even imagine.”

“Exactly.” Her friend agreed. “Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us. And once all of these pieces are in position…”

“Triple Yahtzee?” Tony wondered as he slid his sunglasses on.

As the four of them stood on the lawn outside the facility, Steve sighed. “You think you can find out what’s coming?”

“I do.” Thor nodded and gently hit Tony on the chest. “Besides this one, there’s nothing that can’t be explained.”

Kara let out a laugh at his joke, only stopping when Tony shoved her. She shoved him back, and the other two ignored their sibling antics. Sending a nod to Steve, Thor raised Mjolnir in the air to summon the Bifrost.

He was gone a moment later; a large intricate marking left in his place.

“That man has no regard for lawn maintenance.” Tony shook his head as he flicked Kara on the nose.

Her jaw dropped. “Hey!”

“I’m gonna miss him, though.” He continued as they walked back toward his car. “And you’re gonna miss me.”

“Not likely,” Kara added, narrowing her eyes at him.

“There’s gonna be a lot of manful tears.” Tony ignored her again as he remotely fetched his car.

“I _will_ miss you, Tony,” Steve said honestly.

“Yeah? Well, it’s time for me to tap out. Maybe I should take a page out of Barton’s book. Build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up.”

“The simple life.” Steve supplied and smiled at his fiancée.

Tony nodded. “You guys sure about this relocation? Your room’s still open at the tower if you want it.”

Steve looked around at the soldiers training and scientists following their routines. “I’m home.”

Tony smirked and turned to his sister. “What about you? You sure you’re going to be okay all the way out here?”

Touched by the protective tone in his voice, Kara nodded. “I’m sure. Layna’s already taken my credit card and is ordering a bunch of stuff for her room, so I think it’s safe to say we aren’t going anywhere. Besides, like Steve said, we’re home.”

Stepping forward to hug her, Tony held tight for a moment before moving away and getting in his car. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

Then he was gone, leaving Steve and Kara alone on the lawn.

Kara sighed as she watched him leave. “You know this is the first time I haven’t lived with Tony since I was a teenager? It should be a relief.” She paused. “Instead, it’s just weird.”

Nodding in understanding, Steve wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her back inside the compound to find their new team. “Don’t worry—I have a feeling everything will work out.”


	24. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I’ve had a blast! But I gotta go chase down the fastest man alive."

Walking inside from where she’d landed on the landing pad, Kara cracked her neck. She had been searching the city for hours in response to complaints of energy surges but hadn’t found anything that would give them a clue on finding the source. Feeling the warmth of the air inside, she made her way through the hallways until she located the Avengers level kitchen.

She found Tony, Natasha, Sam, Wanda, Vision, Steve, Rhodey, and Pietro sitting around the table eating and shook her head. “Oh, sure. Sit in here and tell stories while I go out and do all the hard work.”

Grabbing a water bottle from the fridge, she plopped into a seat beside Steve, who smirked at her. “You find anything?”

The blonde shook her head in frustration. “No, and it’s exhausting to look. I’m officially nominating someone else to take a turn now.”

As the group laughed, Tony raised an eyebrow. “Careful, Cap. If she’s looking to relax, she’ll probably be watching musicals on repeat.” He turned to everyone else. “She always did that when she was tired.”

“Excuse me!” She threw a piece of popcorn at his face. “I am sitting right here. And maybe I will; maybe I won’t. It’s not like it will bother you since you don’t live here anymore. Although you are here enough…”

“Wow.” Tony faked shock. “I can’t believe you are just going to come after me like that.”

“Yeah, well, maybe if it weren’t true, I wouldn’t have to…” Kara’s voice trailed off as the power in the compound flickered. “Seriously? Come _on_.”

“Ugh, there you are.”

The group turned and found a man with curly hair leaning against the island.

Blinking in confusion, Kara stood slowly. “Who, me?”

“Yes, you.” He said exasperatedly. “I’ve been looking for you.”

Kara moved forward and felt Steve stand behind her. “I don’t know who you are, but-”

The group watched as her body froze in the spot she’d been standing in, and Wanda gasped as she got a look at her face. “Her eyes are glowing.”

Immediately, everyone had their powers ready and weapons pinned on the man, who rolled his eyes. “Oh, relax; I’m not here to hurt anyone!”

“What are you here for?” Rhodey asked him.

Moving forward without regard for the various weapons trained on him, he plucked something from Kara’s belt. “This.”

They watched as he held up the extrapolator Cisco had given her and clicked the button. A breach opened behind him, and he smiled. “Ladies and gentlemen, this dimension has been so much fun. I’ve had a blast! But I gotta go chase down the fastest man alive. Toodles!”

Bowing, he tossed the extrapolator and jumped into the breach as it disappeared from view.

Steve jumped forward just in time to catch Kara as her body slid to the floor, while Pietro ran forward and grabbed the extrapolator before it could hit the ground and break.

“Kara?” Tony rushed to the soldier’s side. “Kara!”

“She’s out.” Rhodey knelt and pressed his fingers against her pulse point. “Just unconscious.”

Looking around at the group, Sam shook his head. “So…what do we do now?”

“Now?” Steve looked up at Tony, both angry at what had just happened. “Now we find Barry and catch this motherfucker.”

Taking out her extrapolator, Nat nodded at him. “We better suit up, then.”


End file.
